Nineteen Chinese military aircraft, including fighter jets, yesterday flew into Taiwan’s southwestern air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the fourth time this month, the Ministry of National Defense said.
The intruding People’s Liberation Army (PLA) planes were 10 J-16 multirole fighters, four H-6 bombers, four SU-30 fighters and one Y-8 marine patrol aircraft, a report released by the ministry said.
PRATAS ISLANDS
All of the aircraft were spotted southwest of Taiwan, between Taiwan and the Taiwanese-held Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), a chart in the report showed.
While not considered territorial airspace, it is part of Taiwan’s ADIZ, an area declared by a country to allow it to identify, locate and control approaching foreign aircraft.
The air force responded by scrambling aircraft to monitor the Chinese planes, issuing radio warnings and mobilizing air defense assets, the ministry said.
Since the ministry started publishing incursions of Chinese aircraft on Sept. 17 last year, the highest number to enter Taiwan’s ADIZ was 28 planes on June 15, two days after the G7 highlighted the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
TANK TRAINING AREAS
Next year, the armed forces plan to construct two tank training facilities in Hsinchu County, as the US is to deliver 108 M1A2T Abrams tanks from 2024 to 2026, the ministry’s budget plan shows.
The army has about 1,000 tanks, including the CM-11 Brave Tiger and M60A3 tanks, which have been in use for more than 20 years.
The military has allocated a budget of NT$40.5 billion (US$1.46 billion) from 2019 to 2027 to purchase the 108 tanks, which are expected to be assigned to the Sixth Army Corps in northern Taiwan.
Thirty-eight of the tanks are to be delivered in 2024, 42 in 2025 and 28 in 2026.
According to the budget proposal, which has been submitted to the Legislative Yuan for review, NT$4.39 billion is to be allocated for the production of military equipment and the construction of facilities related to operating the new tanks.
The army proposed a budget of NT$450.79 million to build training facilities at the army base in Hsinchu’s Hukou Township (湖口) and NT$1.19 billion at the base in Sinfeng Township (新豐).
Construction of the planned tank driving courses and firing ranges is to begin next year, the budget proposal said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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