The military has given the Coast Guard Administration six 155mm howitzers which it is holding in reserve for deployment on Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island 太平島) if more firepower is needed to bolster the island’s defenses, a defense official who declined to be named said on Sunday.
Itu Aba is the largest naturally occurring landmass in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), some or all of which are also claimed by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.
The coast guard took up the military’s offer to supply heavy guns after reviewing the Ministry of National Defense’s recommendations in April for defending Itu Aba, which is the coast guard’s responsibility, the official said.
The howitzers are to be stored on Taiwan proper and would not be deployed unless nations with military bases near the island decide to undermine the balance of power by reinforcing their garrisons first, the official said.
It is not Taiwan’s policy to alter the balance of power by increasing the firepower of its garrison without provocation, the official said.
The most significant military threat to Itu Aba is Vietnam’s illegal military occupation of Sandy Cay (Dunqian Cay, 敦謙沙洲), which lies 13km from the island, the official said.
The howitzers have an effective range of 14.6km, enough to reach guns the Vietnamese military is rumored to be placing on Sandy Cay, the official said.
Although the Vietnamese military has dug artillery positions on Sandy Cay, it has not deployed artillery pieces yet, the official said, adding the Taiwanese garrison would carefully watch for any developments and respond if the situation changes.
The ministry in April said that coast guards on Itu Aba might need heavy weapons to complement their 20mm and 40mm guns, 81mm and 120mm mortars, AT-4 rocket launchers and small arms.
The ministry report said Itu Aba’s defenses should be bolstered with drones, mobile radar systems, an integrated surveillance and defense system, multiple-launch rocket artillery turrets and double-barrel 20mm guns.
The coast guard on Friday took a Chinese fishing boat and the 17 people on board into custody, after it rammed into a patrol boat while attempting to flee. A 100-tonne coast guard vessel at about 8am discovered a Chinese fishing boat illegally operating in waters about 11 nautical miles (20.4km) northwest of Hsinchu, the Hsinchu offshore flotilla of the Coast Guard Administration said. The crew refused to allow law enforcement to board the ship and attempted to flee, it added. The coast guard vessel and another ship chased the fishing boat for about a half hour, during which time the Chinese boat
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for
Vice President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that Beijing was trying to “annex” Taiwan, while China said its recent series of drills near Taiwan are aimed at combating the “arrogance” of separatist forces. The Ministry of National Defense earlier this month said that it had observed dozens of Chinese fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships and the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, operating nearby. The increased frequency of China’s military activities has raised the risk of events “getting out of hand” and sparking an accidental clash, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said last week. Asked about the spurt
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
RSS