The military and national security apparatus was in “full control” when two Chinese Sukhoi-27 fighters crossed the centerline in the Taiwan Strait on June 29, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday.
The Chinese-language newspaper United Daily News reported that one of the two Chinese fighter aircraft had crossed the theoretical median maritime border between Taiwan and China while allegedly pursuing a U-2S high-altitude US reconnaissance aircraft.
Two Taiwanese F-16 aircraft intercepted the Su-27s, which subsequently returned to Chinese airspace, the report said.
According to the report, the U-2 was based out of a US base in Osan, South Korea, but took off from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, to execute a surveillance mission.
Inquiries to a spokesperson at the US Department of Defense to confirm the presence of a U-2 aircraft near the Taiwan Strait on June 29 remained unanswered by press time yesterday.
The ministry confirmed the veracity of the report, but added that the incident was an isolated case and was not regarded as a provocative act.
The military is closely monitoring the activities of Chinese aircraft in the airspace over the Taiwan Strait, it said in a statement.
“When any emergency situation is detected, the military will immediately send the [Taiwanese] air force to the area to deliver warnings,” the statement said.
Legislators yesterday differed on the significance of the incident.
The intrusion was an act of “aggression, demonstration, provocation and unfriendliness,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said at a press conference, adding that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the ministry should file a protest with Beijing.
The act was “an infringement of our sovereignty,” DPP legislators Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) and Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said, urging Ma and Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to protest.
The ministry handled the incident in accordance with standard operation procedure, Presidential Office spokesperson Fang Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) said.
“With current cross-strait relations the best they have been in decades, I don’t think China sent those fighter aircraft to provoke Taiwan. It did so to warn the US against gathering intelligence along its southeastern coast,” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said.
It might be acceptable for Taipei to express its displeasure to China about the incident, but lodging a protest would be unnecessary, Lin added.
“The incident was just a case that has sometimes occurred during the past decades and no armed aerial confrontation ensued,” Lin said.
Lin said he did not support the idea of Taiwan negotiating the creation of a confidence building mechanism (CBM) with China as a result of the incident.
“The time is not right for CBM talks … and that would worry the US,” he said.
“It’s not unusual for soldiers on the front line to commit such mistakes,” said KMT Legislator Shuai Hua-min (帥化民), a retired army general.
Shuai said Taipei should refrain from overreacting because “the centerline has always been an invisible line and the Chinese aircraft did not make their way deep into Taiwanese territory.”
“It comes down to the pilot’s behavior. Taiwanese aircraft were scrambled and the Chinese side turned back. That’s about it militarily,” he said.
If Taiwan overplays the significance of the incident, it would only stir up more trouble, Shuai said, adding that a similar situation occurred every day after former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) defined the cross-strait relationship as “state-to-state” in nature.
“It’s not necessary to demand an explanation from the mainland [China],” Shuai said.
KMT caucus whip Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲) said the caucus would invite ministry officials to brief lawmakers on the incident to clarify possible misunderstandings after the legislature convenes in late September.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
RSS