Channel-crossing teams from Taiwan and China are planning to come together to attempt to swim across the Taiwan Strait, a challenging task even for seasoned swimmers, a Hong Kong source reported yesterday.
The Hong Kong daily Ming Pao reported that Chinese swimmer Zhang Jian (張健), a lecturer with the Beijing University of Physical Education, has contacted Taiwan's renowned channel-crossing swimmer Wang Han (王瀚) several times in recent years with the idea of initiating a crossing attempt of the Taiwan Strait by swimmers from both sides.
The plan to swim across the Taiwan Strait has become a more and more feasible idea recently with the steady increase in the frequency and acceptance of cross-strait private exchanges despite the political impasse between the two sides, Zhang told the Hong Kong newspaper.
According to Zhang, who last August swam across northern China's Pohai, a gulf located on the Yellow Sea, and who is scheduled to take on the English Channel this July, Wang has set the autumn of 2002 as the time when the planned joint crossing by Wang and Zhang and their two teams of swimmers will take place.
Zhang told Ming Pao that crossing the 210km-wide Taiwan Strait alone is physically and politically impossible for any swimmer in the world to complete because of the unpredictable sea conditions as well as the political stalemate between Taiwan and China. He added that relay swimming would be a viable way of making the crossing.
Wang, who was also interviewed by Ming Pao reporters, said that technically, the Taiwan Strait crossing becomes a 400km crossing when the seasonal currents (which change once about every six hours) are factored in to the actual cross-strait swimming distance.
Wang noted that a point between Taoyuan County and Hsinchu County would be a good location from where to set out on the long-distance swim, adding that the ideal spot on the Chinese side has yet to be decided.
The northeastern monsoon season, from October through April, is not a suitable time for an attempted crossing of the Taiwan Strait, Wang said, adding that water temperature, sharks, physical exhaustion and seasickness are other factors that must be overcome for a successful crossing.
None of these physical factors, however, is as challenging as the political impasse across the Taiwan Strait, he lamented.
Wang, the first swimmer from Taiwan to swim across the Strait of Gibraltar and the first to conquer the English Channel, said he has been planning to challenge the Taiwan Strait for 10 years.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
RSS