The Taiwan Statebuilding Party yesterday called for ports calls to be established between the Taiwanese and US coast guards to help maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
The party’s proposal came hours before US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi was expected to arrive in Taipei.
Beijing has increasingly used maritime law enforcement as a pretext for expanding its sea power, party Secretary-General Wang Hsing-huan (王興煥) told a news conference in Taipei, citing China’s Maritime Police Law amendments and territorial claims over the Taiwan Strait.
The establishment of Taiwan-US ports calls would facilitate China’s containment by enabling coast guard ships from the US’ allies to anchor in Taiwanese ports, which could be utilized to secure Taiwan in gray-zone conflicts or outright war, he said.
Sea power is key to China’s hegemonic ambitions and it explains Beijing’s assertion of sovereignty claims over the waters surrounding the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, he said.
For Taiwan, the most threatening aspect of China’s bid for control of the seas is its ongoing efforts to transform the Taiwan Strait into its territorial waters, a project that involves redefining maritime laws and reforming its coast guard into a paramilitary organization, he said.
Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan would represent an opening for Taipei to pursue the ports of call scheme, he said, adding that the opportunity afforded by warming Taiwan-US ties should not go to waste.
The US appreciates Taiwan’s importance to the defense of the first island chain, as shown by the signing last year of a memorandum of understanding to establish a coast guard working group, Taiwan National Security Association deputy secretary-general Ho Cheng-hui (何澄輝) said.
Broadening bilateral cooperation would be key to managing conflict risks that lie outside the military domain, he said.
Citing the US Institute of Naval Studies’ launch of the Maritime Counterinsurgency Project in March, Ho said the US Navy has begun shifting its focus on improving its gray-zone capabilities in collaboration with its allies.
Taiwan should not allow itself to be left out of international cooperation in matters concerning maritime rescue, counterterrorism and environmental protection, he said.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS