Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) yesterday offered his reassurances after a local military expert said that Chinese warplanes are inching closer to Taiwan and could reach the Presidential Office in Taipei within minutes.
The warning by retired air force lieutenant general Chang Yen-ting (張延廷), was based on a Ministry of National Defense chart posted on Sunday last week, which showed two Chinese fighter jets crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait and getting as close as 41 nautical miles (75.9km) from Keelung.
Chang said that meant a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplane could reach the Presidential Office within four or five minutes.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
This is a problem, because Taiwanese warplanes need at least six minutes to take off and intercept PLA planes, and Taiwan’s military would have little time to prepare to counter such an incursion, Chang said.
Before a fighter jet gets close to Taiwan’s airspace, the military can only track PLA warplanes with anti-air missile systems, exposing a weakness in the nation’s air defenses, Chang said.
Asked about Chang’s warning, Chiu said yesterday that Taiwan’s military has a regular intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance system in place “exactly for the purpose of preventing that scenario from happening.”
He did not elaborate.
However, he said that without military counterattack measures in place, “it is true that a fighter jet would reach the Presidential Office within three to five minutes” if they were 41 nautical miles from Keelung.
Chiu was also asked about media reports that a Chinese oceanographic survey and research ship — the Xiang Yang Hong No. 6 — was detected in waters off Hualien County on Monday.
He said that it is not unusual for Taiwan to identify Chinese survey and research ships in waters around Taiwan.
While the Chinese vessel was detected “at a sensitive time,” Taiwan’s coast guard and military have responses ready, he said, without elaborating.
The military began the eight-day tabletop war games phase of this year’s Han Kuang exercises from Friday last week before the live-fire exercises are held on July 22 to 26. The Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s major war games, have been held annually since 1984 to test combat readiness in the face of a possible Chinese invasion.
The median line has for decades served as a tacit border between China and Taiwan, but China’s has more freely crossed it since then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS