Taiwan will strengthen its defences of the Pratas as China steps up its activities around the islands which lie at the top end of the South China Sea, the minister in charge of Taiwan’s coastguard said on Thursday.
Lying roughly between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance - more than 400 km (250 miles) - from mainland Taiwan.
The Pratas, an atoll which is also a Taiwanese national park, are only lightly defended by Taiwan, and its coastguard has that responsibility rather ?than the military. China claims the Pratas, and Taiwan, as its own territory.
Photo: Reuters
Kuan Bi-ling, head of Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, said China was gradually expanding the maritime areas in which it carries out “grey zone harassment” - referring to non-combat operations designed to put pressure on Taiwan such as coastguard patrols.
Since last year, the number of Chinese government boats, which include the coastguard, has increased around the Pratas, whereas previously activity was concentrated around Taiwan itself and the Kinmen islands, which sit close to the Chinese coast, she added.
STRENGTHENING CAPABILITIES
“From a political and strategic perspective, we have found that for ?them, seizing Dongsha would ?carry considerable strategic significance,” Kuan said, using the name both Taiwan and China use for the Pratas.
Taiwan has renovated the wharf on the main island and will regularly deploy vessels with greater operational capacity there, she added, in comments to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club.
“Dongsha is an excellent and highly important site for the development of an island defence system, and we currently have plans to develop this,” ?Kuan said, without giving details.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In January, Taiwan said a Chinese reconnaissance drone briefly flew over the Pratas, in what Taiwan’s defence ministry called a “provocative and irresponsible” move.
Kuan said China’s pressure campaign “lets down people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait”, given it drains resources from other ?things such as rescuing ?mariners in distress.
In time of war, Taiwan coastguard ships would be pressed into action, including its new Anping-class corvettes, which are based on the navy’s Tuo Chiang-class warships and have space to install anti-ship missiles.
Kuan said China was also giving Taiwan an opportunity to learn.
“As a result, we are accelerating our efforts to strengthen our capabilities and to speed up the transition between peacetime and wartime readiness,” she said.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
RSS