The Chinese military yesterday said it had conducted live-fire drills in waters and airspace off Taiwan’s eastern and southwestern coasts from Friday to Sunday to test and upgrade its joint combat capabilities.
The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) posted the news on Chinese messaging platform WeChat.
Over the past few days, authorities in Taiwan and Japan have observed deployments of Chinese planes and ships near Taiwan from a PLA carrier group of five destroyers, a frigate and a resupply ship led by the Liaoning aircraft carrier.
Photo: Reuters
The Japanese Ministry of Defense first announced on Monday last week that the Liaoning and seven escort vessels had left the East China Sea and passed between Japan’s Okinawa and Miyako islands before entering the Pacific Ocean.
From Tuesday last week to Saturday, fighter jets and helicopters were seen several times taking off and landing on the Liaoning, said the Japan Self-Defense Forces, which sent the JS Izumo helicopter carrier to monitor the movements.
In Taipei, the Ministry of National Defense said on its Web site on Sunday that Chinese Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft had on four consecutive days entered the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
On Friday, 18 Chinese military planes flew into the southwestern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s ADIZ, the largest intrusion by Chinese military aircraft so far this month, the ministry said.
National Defense and Security Research analyst Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft might have entered Taiwan’s southeastern ADIZ to conduct drills with the carrier group, which was in waters about 500km off Taiwan’s eastern coast.
The drills might have been an indirect message from Beijing of its unhappiness over the “internationalization” of the Taiwan issue, Su added.
Ninth graders were asked to define “trolling” on this year’s standardized exam, reflecting efforts to make the test better reflect real-life situations. Adjustments to this year’s Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students were revealed on Sunday, after the last cohort of students completed the test over the weekend. The Ministry of Education solicited feedback about the test from teachers, who approved of the new question in the English portion. Not only was question No. 20 “very much in line with real-life situations,” but it also used a new style in which students were asked to ascertain the correct dictionary definition based
Taiwan is on alert for monkeypox, a rare viral disease that has caused 87 infections in 11 countries over the past three weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Saturday. The WHO on Friday convened an emergency session to discuss a sudden outbreak of monkeypox in North America and Europe. Since the beginning of this month, 87 confirmed cases and 28 possible cases have been identified in 11 countries. The countries with the highest case counts are England with 29 cases, and Portugal and Spain with 23 each. Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease occurring primarily in the tropical rainforest areas
ADAPTING: The CECC said the policy change would happen this week at the earliest, while PCR testing stations would be used to diagnose people and prescribe drugs The general public would be able to use a positive rapid test result that has been confirmed by a doctor for COVID-19 diagnosis starting later this week at the soonest, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 79,441 new local infections and 53 deaths. The center on Saturday announced that it was expanding the rapid test diagnosis policy to people living in indigenous townships and outlying islands, starting today. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, yesterday said the policy might be further expanded to include “all people” this week, at the soonest. He
About 47 percent of people whose deaths were related to COVID-19 this year have died within three days of testing positive, while 33 percent died within three to seven days, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), the center’s spokesman, said 66,247 new local cases, 36 imported cases and 40 deaths were confirmed yesterday. As the number of daily confirmed cases has dropped in the past four days, from 90,331 cases on Thursday last week to 66,247 cases yesterday, the center was asked if Taiwan has reached the peak of a
RSS