The Coast Guard Administration yesterday opened a satellite link connecting the coast guard base on Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) to Taiwan proper in a boost to the nation’s foothold in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島).
Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) wrote on Facebook that the activation of the SES O3b mPower, a medium Earth orbit satellite system, was a goalpost for sustaining the coast guard, research and medical personnel who are stationed on the island.
The coast guard would next establish communications with the Taiwanese outpost on Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島), Kuan said.
Photo: Screen grab from Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling’s Facebook page
In August last year, Taiwan Statebuilding Party members said that coast guard personnel on Taiping were so poorly equipped when it came to communications that they had resorted to using Chinese cellphones to call home, sparking a public furor.
Taiping, the largest of the Spratly Islands, is 1,600km from Taiwan proper, while Pratas lies 444km from the Port of Kaohsiung, distances too great to justify undersea cables, which presents a unique challenge for the personnel posted on the islands, Kuan said.
The Coast Guard Administration acquired the services of the O3b mPower system through the Ministry of Digital Affairs’ National Digital Resilience Program, which seeks to harden Taiwanese communications infrastructure, she said.
Taiping serves as Taiwan’s international technology technological research cooperation hub, and a base for humanitarian search-and-rescue operations throughout the South China Sea, missions that require robust communications, Kuan said.
The more robust communications capabilities installed on Taiping would allow the island to boost its role to what the government envisioned it to be, she said.
Coast guard personnel assigned to Taiping have reported that the O3b mPower system’s performance is satisfactory, Kuan added.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
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