The US has expressed concern over the navy’s accidental launch of a missile into the Taiwan Strait on Friday last week and offered to provide technical assistance to help determine the cause of the incident, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lee (李大維) said yesterday.
Lee made the comments on the sidelines of a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which was held to review President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) achievements during her first state visit to the nation’s diplomatic allies in Latin America.
“On Friday at noon, shortly after the navy’s accidental missile launch, we informed the American Institute in Taiwan’s [AIT] political section of the incident,” Lee said.
“On the same day, we also notified the Taipei-based representative offices of the Philippines and Vietnam, where the injured fishing crew members are from,” Lee added.
Asked about Washington’s response after “reporting” to the US about the missile blunder, Lee said that the ministry only “informed” the US of the incident, rather than reporting to it.
Regarding some academics’ calls for the government to hold an international news conference to explain the incident, Lee said that as the event involved many technical issues, only the Ministry of National Defense would have a clear picture of the incident.
Lee said that while the government has not yet gained a complete understanding of the incident, more details are expected to emerge within the next few days.
The locally developed Hsiung Feng III missile was launched from one of the navy’s 500-tonne Chinchiang-class corvettes at Zuoying Military Harbor in Kaohsiung during a drill at 8:15am on Friday.
It struck a Taiwanese fishing boat — the Hsiang Li Sheng (翔利昇), which was operating in waters southeast of Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait — killing its captain, Huang Wen-chung (黃文忠), and injuring Huang’s son and two crew members from the Philippines and Vietnam.
During a question-and-answer session at the meeting, Lee said that as the incident occurred just before Tsai landed in Los Angles for a transit stop, the president talked about and exchanged opinions the incident with AIT Chairman Raymond Burghardt, who received Tsai as her airplane arrived.
“Burghardt expressed the US’ hope to help us understand why such a matter happened,” Lee said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and