Taiwan is in talks with “certain countries” to conduct a joint humanitarian exercise within the Taiwan Strait to combat China’s “gray zone” tactics and legal warfare, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) yesterday asked what the coast guard is doing to address the force disparity in the Taiwan Strait when Beijing disguises Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy warships as part of the China Coast Guard.
Wang also asked what options the CGA have regarding Chinese ships stopping Taiwanese ships for inspections, and the possibility of improving such measures.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
Instituting a maritime lockdown would be considered an act of war, Hsieh said, adding that the coast guard is working closely with intelligence units and the navy to provide safe passage for Taiwanese ships.
The coast guard is prioritizing the protection of Taiwanese ships first, and extending protection to foreign ships sailing near Taiwan within a 24 nautical mile (44.4km) range, he said.
The CGA is mulling the possibility of developing air support, especially long-range reconnaissance capabilities, which would provide the service with much-needed time to react to Chinese incursions, he added.
Wang suggested that the best way to combat China’s “gray zone” tactics and legal warfare was to give China a taste of its own medicine by working with the US, Japan, the Philippines and Australia, and hosting a joint humanitarian rescue exercise in the Taiwan Strait.
Hsieh said that the coast guard and Ministry of Foreign Affairs are already in related talks with “certain nations.”
“It is true that rescues know no borders,” he said.
Separately, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu branch dispatched four ships yesterday to monitor four China Coast Guard ships detected around Kinmen County while broadcasting messages for the Chinese ships to leave.
The four Chinese ships, bearing pennant numbers 14605, 14604, 14608 and 14521, sailed into restricted waters near Kinmen from the east and west, the CGA said.
The ships had left the area by 5pm, it said.
The CGA said there were 71 recorded incidents of Chinese ships’ incursions into the Kinmen area, and the branch is stepping up monitoring efforts, and hopes to increase deployment and reaction times to such incidents.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS