Taiwan has been taking monthly inventories of critical supplies such as food and fuel in case of a conflict with China, a government official said yesterday.
China mounted war games around the nation in August following a visit to Taipei by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi that included firing missiles and steps to mount a blockade.
Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Chern-chyi (陳正祺) said it is already codified in law to maintain energy stockpiles, which Taiwan Power Co and CPC Corp, Taiwan do.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
“With respect to a possible military conflict, we do have preparations for food and for energy, and critical supplies, including manufacturing supplies. We have a system, we do inventory every month,” Chen said.
“We want to ensure we have a certain period of stockpiles in Taiwan, including food, including critical supplies, minerals, chemicals and energy of course,” he added.
Taiwan’s power mix is made up of liquefied natural gas (LNG), coal, nuclear and renewables, the latter of which the government is trying to scale up, Chen said.
“We remain very comfortable with respect to these possible energy security issues,” Chen added.
Taiwan aims to generate more electricity from LNG in the shift away from coal-powered and nuclear plants, and is building a massive new LNG terminal.
Speaking separately at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, where she was taking lawmakers’ questions, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said that meetings have been taking place to discuss increasing LNG storage capacity.
“Certainly when it comes to LNG storage, we have previously already had cross-department discussions on this,” Wang said.
Those talks also involved whether to use Taiwan-flagged tankers to import LNG, she said.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to