While Taiwan's typhoon season may soon have passed, people remain aware that further tempestuous visitors may yet approach the island and inflict harm and few have gained the sense of security that the international bonhomie surrounding their new names, drawn from diverse Asian cultures, may suggest.
Cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons are potentially devastating tropical storms, the names of which are now decided by regional meteorological centers, with the exception of those over the Indian Ocean which do not have names, but ordinal numbers instead, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau (CWB,
This is the first year since 1947 that Asian nations and regions have been able to suggest names for typhoons developing over Asia's western North Pacific region and the South China Sea. The final decision on naming has been taken by an agency in Asia, namely the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA, 日本氣象廳). Previously, typhoons were named by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) of the US Department of Defense. The latter is responsible for issuing tropical cyclone warnings for the Pacific and Indian oceans.
"It is the cry of rising nationalism," said Wu De-jung (
Wu said Asian countries were sensitive to US control over naming typhoons developing in Asia, seeing it as a legacy of western colonialism in the region.
Asian countries have successfully secured the transfer of the right to name typhoons from the US with the approval of the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Nations or regions of the western North Pacific and the South China Sea, including China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Korea, Micronesia, the US and those of South East Asia, have proposed 140 names to be applied in the weather forecast beginning this year.
The name of the most recent typhoon to approach Taiwan was Saomai, Vietnamese for "Venus;" the typhoon which pounded Taiwan in August and claimed 14 lives on the island, was typhoon Bilis, Filipino for "speed."
Some nations have chosen names of characters in local legends or features of their regions. Typhoons Ewiniar and Prapiroon, the ninth and twelfth typhoons respectively in the region this year, were named after the gods of storm and of rain in Micronesia and Thailand respectively.
China has also selected names of figures from Chinese mythology for its name choices. Yutu (玉兔), for example, is a rabbit in the palace of the moon mixing the elixir of life in a Chinese folktale; Longwang (龍王) is Chinese for Dragon King, who controls the rain and is the name of the second typhoon of the year.
As neither a member of nor even an observer at the UN, and therefore unable to join the WMO, Taiwan cannot take part in the fun of choosing names.
"But why should we bother to fight for the right to name typhoons? Typhoons bring nothing but negative images," Wu said without a second thought when asked whether the CWB had pushed for such a right. "Moreover, I think the politicization of perfectly neutral scientific matters is totally unnecessary," he added. "It has even made the translation of these names, from all sorts of languages into Chinese, a real headache," he said.
Wu also said that it is sometimes confusing for meteorologists to discuss typhoons without a name list at hand. Because different regions and nations started to name typhoons, the names have been listed in no obvious order under countries or regions, instead of simply alphabetically by the name of the typhoon as before. "Previously we could easily find out when the typhoon in question occurred by looking up the name on the alphabetic list of names, instead of first trawling through this jumbled list of countries," he said.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
RSS