The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday.
Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week.
Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it has yet to formally announce any planned military drills.
Illustration: Taipei Times
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to answer when asked about launching military drills in response to Lai’s overseas trip, with spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) simply reiterating the importance of Chinese sovereignty and maintaining Chinese territorial integrity.
While the previous two exercises focused on drills by the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said its intelligence had identified naval formations not only in the Eastern Theater Command, but also in the Northern and Southern Theater Commands.
The ministry added that it had detected China Coast Guard vessels entering areas around the Taiwan Strait and Western Pacific.
Photo: AFP / CGA
The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning joined the second Joint Sword military exercise in October. Whether the carrier would join a third one remains to be seen.
Another difference about the anticipated drills is the area covered by the seven reserved airspace zones, which range from Shanghai in the north and Shantou in the south, with two of the zones close to Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties.
The defense ministry said that it has initiated combat-readiness drills at strategic locations nationwide and was working closely with the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) on appropriate countermeasures.
The CGA said it has detected “unusual activities” by several Chinese coast guard vessels in waters around Taiwan since Friday, including three last week and four yesterday.
Last week, the China Coast Guard ship No. 2901 navigated through waters south of the Taiwan Strait, while No. 1301 and No. 1302 ships navigated southward via waters off Taiwan’s northeast coast, the CGA said.
All three eventually gathered at about 50 to 60 nautical miles (93 km to 111km) off the northeast coast of Green Island on Taiwan’s east coast.
Yesterday, China Coast Guard vessels 2203, 2302, 2304 and 2307 navigated toward waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, the CGA said.
None of them entered Taiwan’s restricted waters, it added.
Using a one-on-one approach, the CGA also dispatched seven ships to closely monitor the whereabouts of the China Coast Guard ships, it said.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
RSS