A three-day live-fire exercise is to be conducted from 8am to 9pm daily on Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) starting on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration’s first nighttime live-fire drill under President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the administration said on Thursday.
Itu Aba, the largest naturally occurring island in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), has been administered by Taiwan since 1956 and is also claimed by China, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The administration said that Itu Aba is threatened by nearby land reclamation work being carried out by China and Vietnam, citing Vietnam’s stationing of a company of troops on Sandy Cay (Dunqian Cay, 敦謙沙洲) about 7 nautical miles (13km) east of Itu Aba.
Chinese-held Hughes Reef (Dongmen Reef, 東門礁), Johnson South Reef (Chigua Reef, 赤瓜礁) and Gaven Reef (Nansyun Reef, 南薰礁), all within 70km of Itu Aba, are also threats due to land reclamation and the establishment of military facilities, the administration said.
The administration marked off areas within 5 nautical miles of Itu Aba as dangerous during the exercise.
Since the government’s decision in 1999 to withdraw marines from the island base, its defenses have been manned by the coast guard, with training by the marines.
Live-fire exercises are routinely carried out every season, the administration said, adding that as there is no heavy artillery on the island, its defense relies on 120mm, 81mm and 40mm mortars, as well as 20mm machine guns.
Separately, the Fisheries Agency announced that there would be live-fire exercises around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) from May 1 to May 2, which are to be carried out from 8am to 9pm, with an expected danger zone of up to 8 nautical miles.
Unlike most countries, Taiwan cannot use its country’s own name to compete in the Olympic Games or other major international sports events. Instead, it participates under the name “Chinese Taipei,” a name that causes confusion and sparks curiosity among many people, including an American director who explored the topic in his new documentary. Garret Clarke, the director of the 20-minute documentary What’s in a Name? A Chinese Taipei Story, said in an recent media interview said that he was motivated to make the documentary because he finds the name “Chinese Taipei” to be “weird.” The dispute that eventually created the name dates back
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to