A Chinese spy ship and a US Navy destroyer were early yesterday detected in the waters off eastern Taiwan, a military source said.
It was not clear if the appearance of the Chinese vessel, identified as the Type 815 spy ship Beijixing, or Polaris, had anything to do with the recent test flights of Taiwan’s new indigenous advanced jet trainer, the source said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to comment publicly on the issue.
The Beijixing was first detected heading south 40 nautical miles (74km) east of Hualien County’s Jingpu Village (靜浦) on Tuesday afternoon, they said.
At about 7am yesterday, it was seen about 43 nautical miles from Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱) and continued to move southward, the source said.
The military also detected the USS Pinckney, a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, sailing into the Pacific Ocean via the Bashi Channel at about 4am yesterday, they said.
The destroyer was last seen about 44 nautical miles southeast of Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) before moving out of the navy’s range of surveillance, the source said.
The advanced jet trainer, codenamed Yung Yin or Brave Eagle, has in the past two days completed internal test flights and operational test flights over the Pacific Ocean east of Taitung, the source said.
An advanced jet trainer fleet is scheduled to be stationed at Taitung Air Base before the end of this year, they added.
Asked to confirm the presence of the Chinese and US vessels, military spokesman Shih Shun-wen (史順文) sidestepped the question, saying only that the armed forces have a complete grasp of any activity near Taiwan’s airspace and waters.
The military source said that most of the Chinese spy ships detected in the past few years in the waters off eastern Taiwan have been Chinese Type 815 auxiliary general intelligence ships.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
President William Lai (賴清德) today condemned an alleged attempt by two Chinese to snatch a letter of congratulations handed to Taiwan’s taekwondo team after they won silver at the Summer World University Games in Essen, Germany, yesterday. A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a congratulatory letter to athletes Hung Jiun-yi (洪俊義), Jung Jiun-jie (鍾俊傑) and Huang Cho-cheng (黃卓乘) from the Ministry of Education, and then argued with media employees. “Why are you taking our things?” the media employees asked. “Does that say Chinese Taipei?” the two Chinese reportedly said. Following the incident, Sports Administration Director-General Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) wrote on
RSS