The Kinmen Defense Command yesterday said it would drive Chinese drones out of Kinmen County, and shoot them down if warnings are ignored.
The command made the announcement after video footage taken from a drone that circled above troops stationed in the county’s Lieyu Township (烈嶼) circulated on Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo (微博) on Saturday.
Troops had noticed the drone over the township on Saturday, and had determined it to be a civilian drone, the command said in a news release.
Photo: Still image taken from a video on Sina Weibo
In accordance with standard procedure, the troops fired a warning flare at the drone and went on high alert, it said.
The military aims to avoid escalating such situations, but would take countermeasures to prevent incursions into the country’s airspace by drones and other airborne objects, the command said, adding that China has been making such incursions with increasing regularity over the past few weeks.
“These repeated provocations are a threat to Taiwan’s national defense and aviation safety, and we will take necessary measures to stop them,” the command said.
On Aug. 16, a separate video circulated on Sina Weibo showing Taiwanese troops throwing stones at a Chinese drone that entered airspace above Erdan Islet (二膽).
The incident was criticized by the Ministry of National Defense as a Chinese attempt at cognitive warfare and sparked public debate about how the military should respond to “gray-zone” tactics — defined as coercive actions carried out by seemingly non-state or nonmilitary actors.
The ministry on Wednesday last week said it had already drafted plans for a drone defense system, which it expects to deploy next year.
GEOSAT Aerospace & Technology Inc (經緯航太科技) chief executive officer Lo Cheng-fang (羅正方) yesterday said that the army should not hesitate to use counter-drone weapons if any are spotted in Taiwan’s territorial airspace.
When faced by China’s provocative gray-zone tactics, the worst thing Taiwan can do is nothing, because it would simply encourage Beijing to be more aggressive, he said.
Lu Li-shih (呂禮詩), a former navy lieutenant commander, said that the army should try to set up a virtual perimeter known as a geofence around a no-fly zone between the offshore counties and China to stop drones from entering.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said that the ministry could work with domestic drone manufacturers to devise drone-defense solutions.
Speaking about an incident yesterday in which two Chinese fishers washed up alive in the county, Wang said that authorities should provide all necessary assistance in such cases, but exercise caution and thoroughly investigate whether other motives are at play.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS