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.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS