The Ministry of National Defense on Saturday declined to comment on the authenticity of an audio recording of an apparent confrontation between a Taiwanese navy vessel and a Chinese navy destroyer off eastern Taiwan.
In the recording, a person, allegedly an officer on the Chinese destroyer Xiamen, can be heard saying that there is no border of Taiwan’s contiguous zone during a radio exchange with the guided-missile destroyer ROCS Ma Kong.
The recording, posted on social media, was allegedly made by the Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier Lady Neeti, which was sailing nearby when the exchange took place.
Photo: Huang Liang-chieh, Taipei Times
In the recording, a man’s voice can be heard identifying his vessel as the Ma Kong and warning another ship that it is approaching the outer edge of the nation’s contiguous zone, 44.5km from the baseline.
Another man’s voice replies: “Xiamen to Ma Kong, the so-called ‘24 nautical-mile [44.5km] baseline’ does not exist. Please check your terminology. Our ship has the right to sail here. Please maintain a safe distance of at least 3 nautical miles.”
“This is Ma Kong. We are currently sailing on a course of 230°. Please adjust your course as appropriate,” the first voice is heard as saying, to which the second voice replies: “Xiamen copies.”
The ministry declined to go into details about its military deployments, saying only that it had taken appropriate response measures to all incursions by Chinese military vessels.
Institute for National Defense and Security Research analyst Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said the best way to prepare Taiwanese mentally for Chinese military incursions is to make information about the incursions more transparent and accessible.
Since US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in early August, Chinese warships have routinely carried out incursions past the median line of the Taiwan Strait and sailed in the waters off Taiwan’s east coast in an attempt to create a new “status quo,” Su said.
Taiwan could learn from Japan’s model of issuing alerts whenever North Korea fires missiles toward it, he added.
Separately, the ministry said 10 Chinese fighter jets crossed the median line on Saturday.
They were among 36 Chinese aircraft detected near Taiwan that day, the ministry said, adding that three Chinese naval vessels had also been spotted in the area.
The ministry said that six Shenyang J-11 and four J-16 planes flew across the median line.
The military also spotted four Chengdu J-10 fighter jets, a Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane, and three H-6 strategic bombers in Taiwan’s southwestern air defense identification zone, the ministry said.
In addition, three Chinese uncrewed aerial vehicles — a Harbin BZK-005 high-altitude, long-range drone, a Guizhou BZK-007 and a CASC Rainbow CH-4 — were detected in the same area, it said.
The ministry said it scrambled combat air and naval patrols, and deployed defense missile systems to track the Chinese aircraft.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS