The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday confirmed that a dredging project to allow larger vessels to dock at a wharf serving Taiwan-controlled Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) has been completed.
However, the coast guard did not respond when asked if President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would preside over a planned opening ceremony for the renovated wharf.
The CGA’s confirmation came following a report in the Chinese-language United Daily News earlier yesterday, which included a call from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Charles Chen (陳以信) for Tsai to reaffirm the nation’s sovereignty by visiting the disputed island.
Photo courtesy of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang’s office
Chen, a member of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, said that Tsai should follow the examples of former presidents Chen Shiu-bian (陳水扁) and Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and travel to the island for the opening ceremony.
The NT$1.7 billion (US$54.4 million) project to dredge sediment and deepen navigation channels would allow 4,000-tonne coast guard vessels to make routine patrols in the waters around the island, the CGA said in a statement.
The renovation, which was completed on Oct. 30 last year and passed the required inspections on Jan. 20, also included reinforced typhoon-related disaster prevention measures, it said.
Itu Aba Island is the largest of the naturally occurring Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) in the South China Sea, 1,600km southwest of Kaohsiung, and is administered as part of the city’s Cijin District (旗津).
The island hosts about 200 members of the coast guard trained by the Marine Corps, who regularly hold drills.
The island is also claimed by Vietnam, China and the Philippines.
It is one of two territories controlled by Taiwan in the South China Sea, the other being the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), which lie 450km southwest of Kaohsiung.
Lawmakers on the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee and Internal Administration Committee in November last year said that they plan to visit Itu Aba Island to reassert the nation’s sovereignty.
The last time a trip to Itu Aba Island was made by lawmakers was in 2016.
Visiting the island requires the lawmakers to take an air force C-130 transport plane and to plan a backup airport in case of an emergency, they said.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS