According to a Nov. 30 report in the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times), aircraft from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) last month set a new record for incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.
Incursions occurred on 25 separate days in October, but last month, the PLA set a new record, entering the area on 26 days, with Taiwan’s air force issuing more than 55 radio warnings for PLA aircraft to leave.
Due to the PLA’s intensification of sea and air drills in the southwestern corner of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙島) are under severe threat from China’s military.
The Ministry of National Defense has responded by garrisoning the Marine Corps on the Pratas Islands, ostensibly to conduct off-shore training, but in reality to bolster its defenses.
Additionally, the ministry has this year invested NT$125.7 million (US$4.41 million) in the Dongsha Barracks New Construction Project.
Tender documentation for the project shows that construction is to comprise the installation or upgrades of water and electricity services, and the installation of electromechanical equipment.
The entire project was originally due for completion by Sept. 30 next year, but on Nov. 11 the Chinese-language United Daily News reported that work on the Pratas airport had been temporarily suspended.
This is very unfortunate.
The government intends to station an air force squadron at the Pratas Islands defensive garrison, in addition to a meteorological station, an outpost of the Marine National Park Headquarters, a Coast Guard Administration defense command post and a coast guard detachment.
The project is sponsored by the Air Force Headquarters and is likely the precursor to a follow-on project to install a radar station and mobile air-defense missiles.
The Pratas Islands are only about 400km from Kaohsiung. If a conflict breaks out, it would affect shipping routes that run through the Taiwan Strait and the Bashi Channel.
Freight and merchant shipping primarily enter the South China Sea from the Indian Ocean through the Strait of Malacca, so if there were a conflict, they would need to divert through the Java, Sulu or the Celebes seas en route to international shipping lanes in the western Pacific Ocean.
Any conflict regarding the Pratas would also be a huge blow to Japan and South Korea, whose export-led economies are heavily reliant on global trade.
Freedom of navigation by the navies of the US and European nations would also be muzzled, as the waters around the Pratas Islands form a key choke point.
If the PLA were to seize control of the islands, it would affect the ability and inclination of foreign warships to patrol the South China Sea.
In light of the tense and unpredictable situation in the South China Sea, prior to stepping down from office in 2016, then-Philippine president Benigno Aquino III invested US$1.3 billion into government programs to improve the Philippines’ ability to control the marine environment of the South China Sea and surrounding waters.
Aquino’s successor, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, has continued to support and fund those projects and has made protecting the country’s maritime economy his highest priority.
Whether from the perspective of defense, diplomacy or territorial sovereignty, the Pratas Islands are vital to Taiwan.
The military’s announcement last month that work has been suspended on construction work there might lead nations in the region to believe that Taipei has neither the will nor the resolve to protect the islands, which would not bode well for Taiwan.
Chang Feng-lin is a university lecturer.
Translated by Edward Jones
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of