As regional tensions continue to grow over overlapping claims in the South and East China Seas, China’s premier civilian maritime agency announced last week it would commission more than three dozen new vessels by next year.
Quoting Chinese government officials, the state-affiliated China Daily reported that to safeguard China’s huge maritime interests, the China Marine Surveillance (CMS) would add 36 ships to its fleet by next year. An unnamed CMS official said that seven vessels would have a displacement of 1,500 tonnes, 15 of 1,000 tonnes and 14 of 600 tonnes.
Construction of the 600-tonne cutters reportedly began on Tuesday in Weihai, Shandong Province.
The vessels will be distributed to 14 provinces, autonomous regions and cities along the Chinese coastline, it said.
Last week’s announcement seemed to indicate that the CMS was accelerating its acquisition of new vessels amid disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan. CMS Deputy Director Sun Shuxian (孫書賢) said in May last year that the 36 new ships would be acquired over the next five years as part of the 12th Five Year Plan approved by the State Council. Under the plan, the agency would also increase personnel by more than 1,000, to about 10,000, and China would “carry out regular sea patrols more frequently to strengthen law enforcement in Chinese-related waters to safeguard the country’s maritime rights in 2011.”
At the time of Sun’s announcement, the CMS counted a fleet of as many as 300 marine surveillance ships — including 30 with displacement of more than 1,000 tonnes — as well as six fixed-wing aircraft and four helicopters.
Jane’s Defence Weekly reported last year that a growing number of larger CMS vessels were capable of carrying helicopters and were becoming more advanced in terms of electronics and maneuverability.
CMS ships were recently involved in China’s dispute with the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal (黃岩島) and are also used to enforce China’s claims to the Spratly (南沙群島) and Paracel islands (西沙群島) in the South China Sea, of which Taiwan is also a claimant. CMS patrol ships sailing close to the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) have also sparked disputes with Japan.
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
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
RSS