The military is closely watching a Chinese drill in the Taiwan Strait that began yesterday morning, ahead of a scheduled meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
Beijing said the drill is a “joint cruise and patrol special operation” led by a patrol vessel.
The Ministry of National Defense said Taiwanese forces are monitoring Chinese activity in the Strait through joint intelligence and surveillance, adding that no irregularities had been detected.
Photo courtesy of Ministry of National Defense
The exercises are led by the Haixun 06 (海巡06), the first large Chinese vessel designated to patrol the Strait, joined by an undetermined number of maritime police vessels, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.
The report did not specify the exact location of the drill and when it would end, saying only that it was being held in the northern and central parts of the Strait.
NAUTICAL CHART
Photo courtesy of Ministry of National Defense
However, a nautical chart attached to the report suggests that the drill might not be limited to the Strait.
The chart highlights two areas east and southeast of eastern Taiwan, without identifying what they represent.
Chinese-language media reported that the two areas are among those that were targeted by missiles during exercises that Beijing launched following then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in August last year.
Separately, the ministry reported that 14 Chinese military jets and three warships had been detected around Taiwan from 6pm on Tuesday to 6am yesterday.
Two of the aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, the ministry said.
One of them was a Harbin BZK-005, a high-altitude, long-range uncrewed aerial vehicle used for reconnaissance purposes and the other was a Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane, it said.
However, no Chinese military aircraft took the more provocative step of crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, the ministry said, adding that the number and routes of flights were similar to Chinese air force movements in the past few weeks.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS