The military has not seen any indication that the US plans to stage a drill in the South China Sea in the near future, as has been suggested by CNN, Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) said yesterday.
Fielding questions from legislators during a hearing, Yen said the nation’s armed forces have closely monitored the regional situation, but have not seen anything to suggest that the US could soon hold an exercise in the disputed waters.
CNN on Oct. 4 reported that the US was planning to conduct freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea later this month, with a proposal being circulated calling for several missions to take place.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) asked if the movement of a US aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait was related to that.
He said the USS John C. Stennis was yesterday sailing toward the US Seventh Fleet based in Yokosuka, Japan, and asked Yen if it would be joining another aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, for a drill in the South China Sea.
The US does not inform Taiwan of its upcoming military deployments in advance, Yen said, adding that Taiwan’s military has not seen anything to suggest that a military exercise would take place.
Taiwan’s military fully respects the freedom of navigation principles being defended by the US, he added.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
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