China’s proposition of “reunification” to stabilize Taiwan’s energy supplies would not happen, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Chin-tsang (何晉滄) said today, calling it cognitive warfare.
Ho was responding to comments by China's Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhu (陳斌華), who told reporters in Beijing that "peaceful reunification" would bring better protection of Taiwan's energy and resource security with a "strong motherland" as its backing.
"We are willing to provide Taiwan compatriots with stable and reliable energy and resource security, so that they may live better lives," he said, responding to a question about Taiwan's energy supplies during the war in the Middle East.
Photo: screen grab from CPC Corp, Taiwan’s Web site
It would be impossible for the energy supply system across the Strait to be interconnected, Ho said.
State-run oil supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan is managing natural gas and other energy sources to ensure supply through the end of next month and is managing May supplies as well, he said.
The government has also implemented the dual-price mitigation mechanism and a special stabilization mechanism to control oil prices and ensure that the consumer price index does not rise above 2 percent, Ho said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said that it has adequate safety reserves and contingency measures to ensure stable energy supplies, such as alternative supplies from the US.
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday also said that energy supplies for this month and next month are assured, and from June more US gas is to be imported.
"Taiwan has adopted a diversified and multi-source strategic approach to energy imports," Lai said in a statement released by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
As the war in the Middle East continues toward a third week, energy supply has become a pressing issue around the world, particularly following the severing of shipping lanes through the vital Strait of Hormuz.
Last year, natural gas accounted for almost half of Taiwan’s energy generation, with approximately one-third sourced from Qatar and transported via the Strait of Hormuz.
Taiwan does not source any energy from China.
Additional reporting by CNA and Reuters
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS