China’s live-fire drills held in waters around Niushan Island near Taiwan's Lienchiang County today were part of an annual routine military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said.
China might be using the exercise to exert deterrence in the Taiwan Strait, the ministry said, adding that it monitored the situation closely and was analyzing China’s military activities and its intentions.
Photo: Reuters
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said the military is prepared for all kinds of situation and would not let any accidents happen.
“It is our duty to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and our people’s safety,” he said, adding that the exercise is threatening to regional peace and stability, and it is meaningless and unnecessary to frequently create tension in the Taiwan Strait.
China’s military exercise is intended to undermine Taiwan’s morale with information warfare, said Chen Kuan-hsien (陳冠憲), a researcher at the Taiwan National Security Association.
The drill is a political response to the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee recently set up by the Presidential Office, as Taiwan’s civil defense is also considered to be pro-independence by China, Chen said.
Some Taiwanese “feel nothing” when China holds military exercises, he said.
The intention of China’s information warfare, such as “expressing love” by saying that it is surrounding Taiwan with a “heart shape,” is to strengthen the impression that “it is no big deal” to hold military drills near Taiwan, he added.
China is progressing its strategy toward Taiwan with a series of activities in a short period of time, Chen said.
The aim is to test reactions from Taiwan and the international community, as modern warfare includes not only traditional hot war, but also diplomacy, communications, economy and technology, he said.
It is best for Taiwan to demonstrate its determination to defend itself, and it is important to bolster civil defense by educating the public on military science, national identity and international situation so as to enhance information literacy, he added.
A maritime safety advisory was issued yesterday by the Maritime Safety Administration in Pingtan in China's Fujian Province, warning vessels to avoid the waters around the Chinese island from 9am to 1pm today, according to several Chinese media outlets.
Niushan is about 80km south of Lienchiang County (Matsu) off Fujian Province and about 165km from Taipei.
The lighthouse on the island is an important landmark that helps vessels navigate the Taiwan Strait, and the island is near a currently suspended ferry route connecting Pingtan and Taipei.
The live-fire exercises around Niushan followed the "Joint Sword-2024B" military drills conducted around Taiwan and its offshore islands on Monday last week, during which China's Coast Guard also took part.
Additional reporting by Fang Wei-li
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm named Trami at 2am yesterday, and is projected to move west-northwest toward waters east of Luzon Island, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Trami’s center was 700km east of Manila, or 1,180km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving in a northwesterly direction. It was carrying maximum sustained winds of 65kph, with gusts of up to 90kph, CWA data showed. The weather agency forecast the center of the storm would be over waters 470km east-northeast of Manila or 820km southeast of Oluanpi at 8am today, and urged ships
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday temporarily shut down the nation’s nuclear energy generation as the state-run utility started regular maintenance on the remaining reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant for 41 days. The No. 2 reactor of the nation’s only active nuclear plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) is set to be decommissioned next year. The No. 1 reactor has been offline since July. The shutdown is to perform equipment maintenance and fuel replacement in preparation for the power plant’s next operating cycle, Taipower said in a statement. With support from other energy sources, Taipower would ensure sufficient power supply
TROUBLED WATERS: The ministers also said they opposed China’s obstruction of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and the militarization of disputed features G7 defense ministers in a joint statement on Saturday singled out China over a number of concerns, including its “provocative actions” near Taiwan. The defense ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US gathered in Naples, Italy, from Friday to yesterday for the group’s first ministerial meeting dedicated to defense. In the joint declaration, they stressed “enduring unity and common determination to address, in a cohesive and concrete manner, security challenges, at a time in history marked by great instability.” In addition to voicing support for Ukraine, expressing concern about the escalating conflict in the Middle East and condemning
BIGGEST TROUBLEMAKER: China should not be carrying out any such exercises given the threat to regional peace and stability, Premier Cho Jung-tai said yesterday The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that live-fire Chinese drills in a province facing Taiwan are part of routine annual drills, but also possibly part of China’s “deterrence effect” in the waters of the Taiwan Strait. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration, in a notice late on Monday, said an area around Niushan Island in China’s Fujian Province would be closed off for four hours from 9am yesterday for live-fire drills. Niushan sits just south of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands. The ministry in a statement said that the exercises are part of routine Chinese training and it was keeping a close watch, but