Taiwan plans to enhance its defenses of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) 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 coast guard said yesterday.
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 400km — from Taiwan.
The Pratas, an atoll which is also a Taiwanese national park, are only lightly defended by Taiwan, and its coast guard has that responsibility rather than the military.
Photo: Reuters
China was gradually expanding the maritime areas in which it carries out “gray zone” harassment — referring to non-combat operations designed to put pressure on Taiwan, such as coast guard patrols, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling(管碧玲) said.
Since last year, the number of Chinese government boats, which include the coast guard, 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 said.
“From a political and strategic perspective, we have found that for them, seizing Dongsha would carry considerable strategic significance,” Kuan said, using the name Taiwan and China use for the Pratas.
Taiwan has renovated the wharf on the main island and would regularly deploy vessels with greater operational capacity there, she said, speaking to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club.
“Dongsha is an excellent and highly important site for the development of an island defense 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 that a Chinese reconnaissance drone briefly flew over the Pratas, in what the Ministry of National Defense called a “provocative and irresponsible” move.
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, Kuan said.
In time of war, Taiwan’s coast guard 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.
However, China is also giving Taiwan an opportunity to learn, Kuan said.
“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.
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
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS