The nation should cut long-standing defense ties with Singapore if the Southeast Asian nation's military expands relations with China, a DPP lawmaker said yesterday.
Singapore's relationship with Taiwan is unique because the country has a pact with Taiwan's military but does not have official diplomatic ties with the nation's government.
Countries that don't recognize Taiwan diplomatically usually don't have formal ties with its military.
The defense agreement has allowed tiny Singapore -- which has limited space for military training -- to send some of its forces to Taiwan for exercises.
But the deal should end if Singapore decides to train some of its troops in China's tropical island province of Hainan, said Lin Chin-hsing (
The lawmaker said Singapore's interest in Hainan is commonly known by the Taiwanese military based in his southern legislative district, a popular training ground.
Lin said that Singapore shouldn't be allowed to use both Hainan and Taiwan because there would be a risk of secrets being leaked to China by visiting Singaporean forces.
The lawmaker said Taiwan should try to stop Singapore from switching to Hainan.
"I've told the government not just to pay attention to relations with America and Japan. We also need to pay attention to small nations, like Singapore," he told reporters.
The Taiwanese military spokesman's office declined to discuss the relationship with Singapore, and the Singaporean military did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
But in his memoirs, former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS