The head of the National Security Bureau (NSB) yesterday said China’s first aircraft carrier would likely start training exercises at sea toward the end of this year.
Bureau Director Tsai Der-sheng (蔡得勝) told a meeting of the the legislature’s National Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee that while the aircraft carrier — an old carrier purchased from Ukraine in 1998, which has undergone refurbishing work in Dalian since 2002 — would commence training operations around that time, it should be noted that the vessel also has combat capabilities.
Tsai’s comment was in response to a question by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) on whether the aircraft carrier was solely for training or if it could play a combat role.
Tsai said the Chinese were also developing combat aircraft based on Russian models capable of landing in and taking off from aircraft carriers.
On rumors that Beijing could rename the Varyag, “Shi Lang,” after the Qing Dynasty admiral who conquered what is now known as Taiwan in 1681, Tsai said if this was the case, then the political implications would be obvious.
Lin told the meeting the impact of China’s first aircraft -carrier would be most felt in the South China Sea, which would compel countries in the region to strengthen their military deployment in the sea.
As Taiping Island (太平島) is very far from Taiwan, any military dispute occurring there would make it difficult for Taiwan to have the upper hand militarily.
Lin also asked Tsai to comment on the impact of a downsizing of the Republic of China military police, which usually ensures security during residential elections.
Tsai said plans by the Ministry of National Defense to cut 1,000 military police personnel and reassign 2,500 to other units would, in the long term, affect security details.
Tsai also confirmed that a new generation of secure cellphones developed by a Taiwanese firm for bureau officials would enter service tomorrow.
The most important function of the cellphone was its ability to keep calls confidential, Tsai said, adding that the tracking function has been disabled and though the cellphone does have a camera function, it is usually turned off.
The new secure cellphone has an encoded chip that enables the deletion of classified data and turns the phone into a normal unsecured cellphone if abnormal activity is detected, a bureau official said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS