The government plans to upgrade Kaohsiung’s Zuoying (左營) naval base to enable the servicing of large warships and to augment its operational capabilities, a Ministry of National Defense official said yesterday.
The strategically important base needs to enhance its capability to service more and bigger ships, including 10,000-tonne warships that are to be built as part of the nation’s shipbuilding program, and those of allied navies, the official said.
The expansion, named the Weihai Project (威海), has a budget of NT$34.5 billion (US$1.13 billion) under the defense allowance of the government’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, the official said.
Photo: Chang Chung-i, Taipei Times
The expanded base is to have a second pier and a second harbor entrance-exit point on its north side, with requisite berths and shore-side facilities, the official said.
Due to its reliance on a single entrance-exit point, the Zuoying naval base is considered vulnerable to blockade and attack.
In a war, the navy would have to dock its warships for supply and maintenance one at a time to avoid having too many vessels remaining stationary and vulnerable, the official said.
Adding another exit-entrance point and expanding base facilities would enhance fleet survivability and operational efficiency by shortening the time required to assemble naval forces for combat, the official said.
The estimated completion date for the second pier and harbor entrance-exit point is 2025, the official said.
Plans for maintenance and administration facilities and barracks are being drawn up by private consultants, with plans expected to be complete by the end of the year, the official said.
The navy has submitted the expansion’s basic layout to the Executive Yuan’s Public Construction Commission, and environmental impact studies have been filed to the Environmental Protection Administration, the official said.
As development projects for coastal areas must be authorized by the Ministry of the Interior, the permit request would be sent to its Construction and Planning Agency for evaluation, the official said.
The US Congress is expected to authorize the US Navy to make port of call stops in Taiwan, following the US Senate Armed Services Committee’s resolution earlier last month backing US naval visits to the nation.
The news triggered speculation in Taiwan as to which port would be selected by the navy to receive US warships, with Port of Kaohsiung officials last week saying that it is technically suited for the task.
However, the Ministry of National Defense statement suggests that officials favor the Zuoying naval base and not the civilian harbor to its south.
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would