The Chinese military’s record number of incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) has undermined peace in the region, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, warning Beijing against further actions that could accidentally spark conflict across the Taiwan Strait.
“Chinese aggression has severely undermined regional peace and stability,” Tsai said at the weekly meeting of the Democratic Progressive Party’s Central Standing Committee. “Beijing must refrain from going too far and accidentally sparking conflict across the Strait.”
A total of 149 Chinese aircraft entered Taiwan’s ADIZ over four days — 38 on Friday, 39 on Saturday, 16 on Sunday and 56 on Monday — prompting expressions of concern from countries such as the US, Australia and Japan.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Ministry of National Defense
Germany on Monday also weighed in, with German Foreign Office deputy spokesman Christofer Burger expressing Berlin’s “great concern” over the rising tensions between the two sides of the Strait.
Beijing’s disregard for regional security and stability, and its provocative aircraft incursions have met with serious concern and condemnations from the international community, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement.
Germany is a like-minded partner, with peoples in both countries maintaining solid friendship and close exchanges, Ou said, adding that Taiwan would be happy to engage in talks on regional security issues with Germany and other democratic partners to defend peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region.
In other developments, the military yesterday publicly confirmed for the first time the existence of the “Yun Feng” (雲峰, Cloud Peak) medium-range surface-to-surface missile, which has been under development since the 1990s.
Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) mentioned the missile during a joint meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign and National Defense Committee and Finance Committee.
When asked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) about the development and capabilities of the Yun Feng missile, Chiu was unwilling to reveal any details, saying only that the military is still “working on it.”
It was the first time the Ministry of National Defense has publicly acknowledged the existence of the missile, which is said to have a range of up to 1,500km.
Local media speculated last year that the missile was tested in April last year, but the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology refused to comment on the issue.
The Yun Feng missile has reportedly been under development since the 1990s and is designed to strike land-based targets inside China, local and foreign media reports have said.
Capable of hitting strategic targets such as airports, harbors and command centers in inland China, the Yun Feng missile is a key part of Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare plan to erode China’s combat capabilities, said Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a senior researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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