The Coast Guard Administration yesterday opened a satellite link connecting the coast guard base on Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) to Taiwan proper in a boost to the nation’s foothold in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島).
Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) wrote on Facebook that the activation of the SES O3b mPower, a medium Earth orbit satellite system, was a goalpost for sustaining the coast guard, research and medical personnel who are stationed on the island.
The coast guard would next establish communications with the Taiwanese outpost on Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島), Kuan said.
Photo: Screen grab from Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling’s Facebook page
In August last year, Taiwan Statebuilding Party members said that coast guard personnel on Taiping were so poorly equipped when it came to communications that they had resorted to using Chinese cellphones to call home, sparking a public furor.
Taiping, the largest of the Spratly Islands, is 1,600km from Taiwan proper, while Pratas lies 444km from the Port of Kaohsiung, distances too great to justify undersea cables, which presents a unique challenge for the personnel posted on the islands, Kuan said.
The Coast Guard Administration acquired the services of the O3b mPower system through the Ministry of Digital Affairs’ National Digital Resilience Program, which seeks to harden Taiwanese communications infrastructure, she said.
Taiping serves as Taiwan’s international technology technological research cooperation hub, and a base for humanitarian search-and-rescue operations throughout the South China Sea, missions that require robust communications, Kuan said.
The more robust communications capabilities installed on Taiping would allow the island to boost its role to what the government envisioned it to be, she said.
Coast guard personnel assigned to Taiping have reported that the O3b mPower system’s performance is satisfactory, Kuan added.
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