A Chinese civilian aircraft flying near Lienchiang County’s Dongyin Island (東引) earlier this month was likely meant as a provocation or a test of Taiwan’s combat readiness, military officials said on Tuesday.
Ministry of National Defense (MND) spokesman Shih Shun-wen (史順文) told a news conference that the military could not rule out that China tried to test whether Taiwan would respond to the flyby.
“Whether it was meant as a provocation or a test, the nation’s armed forces are always ready and have prepared contingencies for all kinds of scenarios,” he said.
Photo: CNA
The Feb. 5 flight was confirmed by the ministry a day later.
Residents on the island, near the coast of China’s Fujian Province, told Chinese-language media that they could hear and see the aircraft, spurring speculations that it entered Taiwan’s territorial airspace.
Local media reported that the low-flying plane evaded radar when entering Taiwan’s airspace, but the military denied that allegation.
Air force Chief of Staff Huang Chih-wei (黃志偉) on Tuesday said that the military identified the aircraft as a civilian Y-12 light twin-engine plane, adding that it came near Dongyin, but did not enter Taiwanese airspace.
Military units on the island took “appropriate measures to monitor the aircraft’s movements to safeguard national security,” he said, without elaborating, citing the sensitivity of the issue.
Unlike after Chinese incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, the military did not reveal the Y-12s flight path.
A country’s territorial airspace extends 12 nautical miles (22.2km) from the coastline of its territory. Countries have the right to attack any hostile aircraft that enters its territorial airspace without seeking permission.
Dongyin, part of the Matsu archipelago, is less than 50km east of China’s coast and about 185km northwest of Keelung.
Defense expert Lin Ying-yu (林穎佑) said that by sending a civilian aircraft near Taiwan’s territorial airspace, Beijing was engaging in so-called gray-zone warfare, staying below the threshold of traditional warfare.
Such tactics make it difficult for the defending nation to decide whether to answer with military force or police action, prolonging the time it takes to respond, he said.
Lin called on the military to work closely with other government units to implement a unified strategy to respond to such threats.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
RSS