Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday.
Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said.
A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng River (後坑溪) in New Taipei City last week ahead of Mid-Autumn Festival, both claiming to be defecting to Taiwan.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
When the CGA was founded, five maritime volunteer teams had been established across Taiwan proper and Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with 186 volunteers, a coast guard official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
As Beijing has been sending warplanes and vessels to harass Taiwan at its borders, making the cross-strait situation volatile, the volunteers can function as “maritime scouts” and report the discovery of unidentified ships in Taiwan’s territorial waters to the authorities, they said.
The recruitment of more maritime volunteers would help compensate for radar systems’ limited capabilities in detecting unlawful entries, especially before the construction of advanced detection technology is completed, the official said, adding that many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols.
The CGA has five branches set up for northern, central, southern and eastern Taiwan, as well as Kinmen and Lienchiang counties, collectively overseeing 159 inspection offices, most of which are located at commercial ports, fishing ports or busy estuaries, they said.
In addition to the 12 ocean service stations established in 2021, the inspection offices would also be used to incorporate a 35-person coastal patrol volunteer team, the official said.
The administration said it expects to build a coastal patrol “army” of 6,000 volunteers, with a structure of squadrons, groups and corps established for management, they said.
The volunteers would assist in preventing “gray zone” conflicts and reporting illegal behavior, such as stowaways, smuggling, illegal electrofishing or blast fishing, the official said.
They would also drive a boat or join a patrol ship to help with search-and-rescue operations or marine debris removal in line with the Ocean Affairs Council’s humanitarian aid policy and sustainable ocean plans, they added.
While the CGA plans to reinforce coastal defense by recruiting more patrol volunteers, analyses of unlawful entry incidents and stowaway cases have shown that Taiwan must bolster its self-defense no matter what an intruder’s true intentions are, the official said.
In addition to infrared thermal cameras and uncrewed aircraft, an automatic identification system (AIS) should be mandatorily installed on small ships weighing less than 20 tonnes to increase their identifiability and distinguish them from foreign vessels, they said, adding that the coast guard has been discussing the issue with other agencies, including the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
However, more communication is needed as most fishers might not be willing to install an AIS on their ships, a fisher said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The fishing industry is highly competitive and fisheries are considered business secrets, they said, adding that a whole year’s income could be affected if they are revealed to competitors.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
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 —
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
RSS