Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration (CGA) will conduct a joint maritime rescue drill this week with its Chinese counterpart, the first time the coastal patrol agencies on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are to hold joint marine exercises.
According to the CGA, it will hold the drill with China’s Maritime Search and Rescue Center in waters off southeastern China, between Taiwan’s Kinmen and the Chinese city of Xiamen.
Boats and aircraft from Taiwan and China will simulate the collision of two ships on the Kinmen-Xiamen route — one of the busiest areas in the Taiwan Strait — and try to save “passengers” that fall into the sea, the CGA said.
The CGA will send nine patrol boats, including a 500-tonne patrol vessel, and helicopters to Kinmen for the joint drill.
To avoid unnecessary political disputes, the two sides have decided that all participating vessels and rescue teams will only carry flags that symbolize the joint drill, CGA officials said.
They underlined that the drill was being held for the sole purpose of preparing for possible accidents in the Taiwan Strait.
Commenting on the landmark cross-strait marine drill, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said he supports the way Taiwan and China have defined marine rescue as “a humanitarian practice.”
“We must recognize China’s conduct” to help save Taiwanese fishing boats from difficulties while operating in waters in the Taiwan Strait, he said.
However, Huang also questioned whether Chinese ships should be permitted to sail across the median line of the strait into Taiwan’s waters in the future if a marine accident happens on Taiwan’s side of the strait.
“It needs to be discussed,” he said.
On Thursday, former deputy defense minister Lin Chong-pin (林中斌) said that although the participants in the rescue drill are not from the military, he sees the event as a “positive signal” in the two sides’ pursuit of mutual military trust.
Lin, now a professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, saw the upcoming marine drill as a sign that Taiwan and China have finally begun to pay attention to the long-term need for a joint capability in handling marine accidents in the Taiwan Strait.
The drill may be the first between the two central government’s coast guards, but joint exercises have taken place at the local level.
In October 2008, the Kinmen County Government dispatched ships and rescue personnel to conduct a joint marine rescue drill with a similar patrol squad from Xiamen.
Kinmen County Commissioner Li Wo-shi (李沃士) in June urged the two sides to establish a cross-strait marine accident rescue mechanism as soon as possible because of the fast pace at which transport services between Kinmen and Xiamen are growing.
Lee said 1.28 million traveled between the two destinations by boat last year, adding the volume is expected to rise this year.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS