A Canadian warship has sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The voyage comes at a time of heightened military tension between Taiwan and China.
Beijing has stepped up its military activity around Taiwan in the past few weeks, including sending fighter jets to cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait.
The ministry said that the Canadian corvette had sailed into the Strait from the South China Sea, heading north.
The Taiwanese military monitored the ship while it was in the Strait, the ministry said, adding that the situation was normal.
The Royal Canadian Navy has sailed through the Strait before, including in September last year.
The US Navy has also been conducting regular passages.
Separately, military sources yesterday said that a Chinese military vessel has been observed operating in international waters 30 nautical miles (55.5km) off Taiwan’s east coast for more than a day since early Friday.
The Chinese ship was spotted in waters off Hualien County in the early hours of Friday morning, before sailing northward yesterday, the sources said.
The ship “sailed even nearer to Taiwan” than a similar incident on Sept. 17, when a Chinese spy ship appeared in the waters off Hualien and remained in the area for more than a week, the sources said.
The military officials did not identify the Chinese vessel, but said that a patrol ship has been dispatched to monitor its movements.
The area is close to where the military usually tests missiles and other projectiles.
Meanwhile, the ministry also confirmed that a Chinese Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft yesterday entered Taiwan’s southwestern air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the 10th Chinese intrusion since Sept. 16.
The military responded by scrambling fighter jets, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing surveillance and air defense assets until the Chinese planes left the ADIZ, the ministry said.
‘HIDDEN GEM’: The city earned plaudits for its low crime rate, world-class healthcare system, cheap cost of living and easy public transportation Taipei has been named the 10th best city in the world for quality of living in an annual survey by the editors of Monocle, a UK-based global affairs and lifestyle magazine. The survey, which is to be published in the magazine’s July/August issue, selected the world’s top 25 cities based on factors including cost of living, retail, hospitality, culture and access to green spaces, as well as feedback from Monocle correspondents. Taipei’s 10th place finish was one place down from a year earlier. The survey ranked Copenhagen as the world’s best city, with Zurich, Lisbon, Helsinki and Stockholm rounding out the top five.
GLOBAL STRATEGY: Indo-Pacific alliances need reinforcement to prevent Chinese occupation of Taiwan, which would threaten Japan, Hawaii and Australia, Pompeo said The US should officially recognize Taiwan as a free, independent nation and establish official diplomatic ties, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told an event at the Hudson Institute in Washington on Friday. Every US president since Harry Truman has considered Taiwan’s existence to be of utmost importance to US national security, Pompeo said. Taiwan is a principal US partner in technology and economic matters, and if China were to capture Taiwan’s semiconductor supply chain, it would severely hamper the US economy, Pompeo said. Should China occupy Taiwan, it would severely weaken US influence in the Indo-Pacific region and its surrounding areas,
NO COMORBIDITIES: The girl died of encephalitis, the sixth COVID-19-related death of the disease this year and 19th death of a child from the virus, the center said The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 52,213 new domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases and 171 deaths from the virus, including a four-year-old girl, who had been diagnosed with encephalitis, and a 19-year-old man, who had underlying health conditions. “The caseloads are usually higher on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but they [yesterday] fell 7.3 percent from the day before,” Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said. Chuang, who is the CECC’s spokesman, said that most cities and counties reported a drop in new cases, and the CECC expects fewer than 50,000 new cases today. The center said that 150 of
LIMIT: The CECC has capped the number of weekly arrivals to 25,000, which critics said has limited the number of available flights and caused ticket prices to soar The government is not likely to raise the cap on the number of inbound travelers before the end of this month, despite the apparent effect on the number of inbound flights, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Wednesday last week eased quarantine rules for inbound travelers, who must undergo three days of home quarantine upon arrival and spend another four days in self-initiated disease prevention. It also capped the number of inbound travelers to 25,000 per week. The weekly limit has drawn criticism that it has limited the number of flights
RSS