The US’ Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer the USS John Finn and Pathfinder-class oceanographic survey ship USNS Mary Sears on Friday and Saturday sailed through the Taiwan Strait, the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said.
“USS John Finn and Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Mary Sears conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit Jan. 16 to 17 through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law. The ships transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal state,” a US Naval Institute report quoted the statement as saying.
“The transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the US’ commitment to upholding freedom of navigation for all nations as a principle. The international community’s navigational rights and freedoms in the Taiwan Strait should not be limited. The US rejects any assertion of sovereignty or jurisdiction that is inconsistent with freedoms of navigation, overflight, and other lawful uses of the sea and air,” it added.
Photo: Screen grab from USS Finn’s Facebook page
This is the fourth time during US President Donald Trump’s second term that a US warship has sailed through the Taiwan Strait.
The Ministry of National Defense said it had monitored and controlled the maritime and air dynamics around Taiwan using joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance methods.
The Chinese military on its official WeChat account said it also monitored the transit.
China’s People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command spokesman Xu Chenghua (徐承華) said that the command’s troops would “remain on high alert at all times, resolutely defend national sovereignty and security, and maintain regional peace and stability.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS