China appears to have built mockups of a port in northeastern Taiwan and a military vessel docked there, with the aim of using them as targets to test its ballistic missiles, a retired naval officer said yesterday.
Lu Li-shih (呂禮詩), a former lieutenant commander in Taiwan’s navy, wrote on Facebook that satellite images appeared to show simulated targets in a desert in China’s Xinjiang region that resemble the Suao naval base in Yilan County and a Kidd-class destroyer that usually docks there.
Lu said he compared the mockup port to US naval bases in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan, and in Subic Bay in the Philippines, but it more closely resembles Suao.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
The South China Morning Post on Thursday quoted Lu as saying that the mockup vessel resembled one that was based in northeast Taiwan and some Guam-based US vessels.
“The mockups and drills suggest that Chinese People’s Liberation Army warships are simulating precision strikes on the Guam naval base and the Suao military port using China’s YJ-21 anti-ship missiles,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
“A site with full-scale piers and a destroyer-sized ship-like target was constructed in December [last year],” said a report published on Wednesday on the US Naval Institute Web site, an independent forum.
“A test missile hit ... dead-center on the ship replica in February” at the Taklamakan Desert site and the target was quickly disassembled “and is now gone,” the Web site reported.
In November last year, satellite images showed that China was building targets that simulated a US aircraft carrier and other US warships in the desert to test its hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missiles, including YJ-21s, which are an increasingly significant threat to vessels, it said.
Images of the sites were in satellite images that the US Naval Institute posted, but it did not name any structures that the mockups might have been modeled after.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that a surge in respiratory illnesses in China has been caused by at least seven types of pathogens, and small children, elderly people and immunocompromised people should temporarily avoid unnecessary visits to China. The recent outbreak of respiratory illnesses in China is mainly in the north and among children, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said on Monday. Data released by the Chinese National Health Commission on Sunday showed that among children aged one to four, the main pathogens were influenza viruses and rhinoviruses, while among children aged five to 14, the main pathogens
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
INCENTIVES: The province’s ‘21 measures’ include enhanced agricultural loans for Taiwanese farmers, and rent waivers and housing subsidies for Taiwanese start-ups China’s Fujian Province on Monday began implementing 15 economic measures targeting Taiwanese in its latest bid to fan pro-Beijing sentiment ahead of the Jan. 13 elections. Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency said the policies were part of “21 measures” unveiled in September by China for Fujian’s “integrated cross-strait development demonstration zone.” The partially implemented measures, which were created with input from Beijing, include reducing the wait time for Taiwanese applying for a visa from 20 days to five days and free public transit for Taiwanese older than 65, it said. Residents of Taiwan were granted use of the “all provincial Taiwanese entrepreneur compatriot
Tokyo has requested regions in southern Japan to accommodate people evacuated from Okinawa Prefecture in case of a war in the Taiwan Strait, Kyodo news agency reported on Monday. If a conflict breaks out across the Strait, people on the Sakishima Islands, which lie between Taiwan proper and Okinawa’s main island, would have to be evacuated from the prefecture, the news agency reported. An estimated 120,000 people would need to be moved, including 110,000 citizens and 10,000 tourists, it said. Niitani Koushi, who is in charge of crisis management at the Japanese Cabinet Secretariat, visited Yamaguchi Prefecture at the southern end of Japan’s
RSS