Chinese movements around Taiwan were “abnormal,” Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said yesterday, flagging recent amphibious exercises in addition to drills Taipei has observed in China’s Fujian Province.
Taiwan has reported a rise in Chinese military activity over the past week as dozens of fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships, have operated around the nation.
“Our initial analysis is that they are doing joint drills in September, including land, sea, air and amphibious,” Chiu told reporters at the legislature in Taipei.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The “recent enemy situation is quite abnormal,” he said.
The comments followed a statement from the ministry on Thursday that it was keeping watch on Chinese activities near Dacheng Bay in Fujian Province.
Taiwan security sources said that China performs landing drills in the bay area.
China has not said anything about the drills around Taiwan, and its defense ministry did not respond to two requests for comment.
Chiu said releasing the information about Dacheng Bay was in line with his ministry’s principle of telling people what was happening.
China carried out landing drills in Dacheng Bay in September last year and the year before that, said Chieh Chung (揭仲), a military researcher at the National Policy Foundation think tank.
Those exercises featured civilian ships with equipment practicing “dockless unloading,” to simulate a situation in which they might need to land after port facilities are knocked out of action or destroyed, Chieh said.
However, China would be hard-pressed to carry out a frontal, amphibious invasion of Taiwan, given geographic difficulties, a senior US defense official told the US Congress on Tuesday.
Last week, China also dispatched more than 100 naval ships on regional exercises, in areas such as waters in the South China Sea and off Taiwan’s northeast coast, a regional security official said on condition of anonymity.
China traditionally performs large-scale exercises from July to September, the Ministry of National Defense has said.
Yesterday, the ministry said that it had detected 24 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force planes entering Taiwan’s air defense zone over the previous 24 hours, with at least 17 crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, as shown on a map it published.
Another security source told reporters, also on condition of anonymity, that China was likely seeking to wear out Taiwan’s military with constant missions so close to Taiwan, especially with longer flights along the median line than before.
“China is seeking to normalize these activities and push Taiwan into a corner,” the source said, adding that it risk a miscalculation if Chinese ships or aircraft got too close and Taiwan opened fire.
Taiwan has frequently said that it would remain calm and not escalate the situation, but that it would not allow “repeated provocations” from China, the source said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
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