The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it was monitoring “waves” of missile tests in China’s Inner Mongolia and that its air defense forces were on alert.
From 4am yesterday, the ministry detected “multiple waves of test launches” by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force in Inner Mongolia, about 2,000km from Taiwan, it said.
The military are continuously monitoring developments and the air defense forces are on alert, the ministry said, without giving details.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not answer calls seeking comment outside of office hours. The Rocket Force is in charge of China’s conventional and nuclear missile arsenal.
The tests come as two Russian warships arrived in the southern Chinese port city of Zhanjiang for joint naval exercises, the first phase of which is to begin tomorrow, the Russian Ministry of Defense said yesterday.
In August 2022, China fired missiles into the waters around Taiwan during war games to express anger at a visit to Taipei by then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Taiwan operates powerful radar stations on some of the peaks of the Central Mountain Range that can look far into China, security sources said.
Beijing has increased its military pressure on Taiwan, including war games, since the May 20 inauguration of President William Lai (賴清德), who it refers to as a “separatist.”
Lai has repeatedly offered to hold talks with China, but has been rebuffed.
Lai yesterday inspected the Weihai Naval Base (威海營區) at the Port of Keelung, home to the nation’s 131st Fleet and its indigenously built Tuo Jiang-class corvettes.
Addressing the fleet, Lai said it is charged with the important tasks of patrolling waters to the south and northeast of Taiwan and escorting transports to outlying islands.
The fleet is also an important pillar of the military’s asymmetric warfare capabilities, he said, adding that he hopes they would continue to uphold the navy’s spirit of loyalty and righteousness, and protect the country’s coasts and territorial waters.
The high-efficiency Tuo Jiang-class stealth corvettes stationed at the base have helped to bolster national security and represent the cross-section of Taiwan’s ongoing projects to build warships domestically, he said.
In his address, Lai referred to a project to relocate military harbors at the naval base port westward, which entails building new offices and dormitories for military personnel.
The project is expected not only to significantly improve their living conditions, but also boost national defense and the development of Keelung, he said.
Lai also gave the fleet a monetary reward meant to boost morale.
Additional reporting by AFP
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
‘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
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not