Penghu Defense Command yesterday denied rumors that an abrupt cancelation of live-fire exercises planned for yesterday was motivated by Chinese military drills off the coast of Quanzhou.
The cancelation was due to drills and weapons’ maintenance work having been completed just last month, and had nothing to do with fears of sparking conflict in the Taiwan Strait, as some have speculated, the center said.
On March 22, the center announced that routine live-fire exercises would be conducted between 5:50am and 7am yesterday, advising the public not to come within a 5 nautical mile (9.26km) radius of the area centered in Magong’s Wude Borough (五德).
Photo: Liu Yu-ching, Taipei Times
Speculation emerged after the center failed to announce the cancelation three days in advance — as per standard procedure — and only issued an urgent cancelation order on Tuesday.
Speculation was also fueled by the scheduling of Chinese military drills, which were to take place only two hours after the Penghu exercises.
The decision to cancel might also have been motivated by President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) absence as she left on Tuesday for a four-day official visit to ally nation Swaziland, local media reports said.
As routine drills and maintenance work were completed less than a month ago, there was no need to do them again so soon, the center said, adding that the March 22 announcement was made because planned drills must be announced several weeks in advance.
Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) responding to concerns over the Chinese drills said that the government is monitoring the situation and the public should not overreact.
“There are still some nations who go along with whatever China says, but has Taiwan become that weak? We have to have confidence,” Hsu said.
Taiwan is a sovereign state called the Republic of China and has no interest in trying to reclaim areas controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, he said in an interview yesterday morning with radio station Super FM Taiwan.
The Democratic Progressive Party yesterday issued a statement criticizing the drills as a “scarecrow move” aimed at causing a rift within society.
Looking at reactions in the media and of some politicians it is clear the move represents a “routine pattern,” the statement said.
There is no need to take the drills seriously or let them affect life in Taiwan, Hsu said, adding that the public is already smartening up to China’s tactics.
Hsu said he often encountered Chinese live-fire drills when he was stationed in Kinmen for military training.
“It is just small anti-aircraft fire,” he said.
The military is operating under a normal state of readiness and has not raised alert levels, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said yesterday, adding that it is an exaggeration to refer to the small-scale Chinese drills as “military exercises in the Taiwan Strait.”
Minister of National Defense Yen Da-fa (嚴德發) had not entered the Heng Shan Military Command Center in Taipei as of press time last night.
National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Tsai Ming-yan (蔡明彥), who is accompanying Tsai Ing-wen, said the president was busy today meeting Swazi officials and has not had a chance to issue a formal statement, but that she would respond immediately should the need arise.
The president’s envoy has been keeping in touch with officials at home, he said.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary