The Indonesian government has drawn up a contingency plan to evacuate Indonesians in Taiwan amid rising concern over tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
The emergency plan would involve evacuating 350,000 Indonesian nationals from Taiwan as “geopolitical conditions surrounding Taiwan have not abated,” Indonesian newspaper Kompas reported on Friday.
“To anticipate various possibilities, a contingency plan has been prepared in collaboration with the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office in Taipei,” Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director for Indonesian Citizen Protection Judha Nugraha was quoted as saying.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The plan was revealed after China last week conducted three days of military drills around Taiwan following President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) meeting with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
An evacuation would be complicated, as a possible siege by China would cut off flights and shipping, the only transportation options in and out of Taiwan, the paper said.
The evacuation of citizens should be organized by the governments of each country, Yuyun Wahyuningrum, the Indonesian representative on the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, was cited as saying.
ASEAN is preparing two declarations for the protection of migrant workers: one concerns the protection of migrant workers in times of crisis and the other of migrant workers on fishing vessels, he said.
Taiwan’s stability is vital to Indonesia not only because of safety concerns for its citizens, but also because of economic reasons, with Taiwan accounting for about 7 percent of Indonesia’s GDP in 2021, Kompas said.
If a conflict breaks out across the Taiwan Strait, it would affect global supply chains and its impact on shipping routes would shake Indonesia’s economy, it added.
After cross-strait tensions mounted following then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August last year, Japan was also in talks with Taiwan regarding how to evacuate Japanese nationals from Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.
The Philippines has also confirmed that it has a plan for evacuating its 150,000 citizens from Taiwan in case of an emergency.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that Chinese intimidation of Taiwan has seriously endangered the security, peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait, and aroused grave concern from neighboring countries, such as Indonesia and the Philippines.
The ministry said it would maintain close contact with representative offices in Taiwan to exchange views on the regional situation and provide necessary assistance to protect their citizens in Taiwan.
Referring to remarks by Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian (黃溪連) on Friday that security cooperation between the US and the Philippines is an intervention in the cross-strait situation that would endanger Filipino workers in Taiwan, the ministry said Huang is using Taiwan to stoke fear and cover up the fact that China is undermining regional peace and stability.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS