Taiwan’s military yesterday concluded two days of drills at sea and in the air to practice defending against a surprise attack by China.
Almost every day, Chinese warships sail around Taiwan and warplanes fly toward the nation before turning back.
Journalists observed the training from boats that escorted a mine-laying ship.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
“Any unilateral irrational action could very easily escalate tensions and sabotage stability in the Taiwan Strait region,” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General Sun Li-fang (孫立方) told reporters at Tsuoying Naval Base in Kaohsiung.
The ministry said in a daily report that seven Chinese warplanes and four naval vessels were detected around Taiwan in the 24-hour period ending at 6am yesterday.
It also reported a Chinese balloon off the northern coast.
The drills, which started on Tuesday, come less than three weeks after the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), was elected president, giving a third straight four-year term to the party, which is opposed by China.
The drills are aimed in part at boosting public confidence in the nation’s ability to defend itself.
While its military is dwarfed by China’s, Taiwan has been buying high-tech weaponry from the US, revitalized its domestic arms industry and extended the length of mandatory military service from four months to one year.
Separately, the military is mulling the adoption of an indigenous 105mm gun-bearing wheeled fighting vehicle after a proof-of-concept program reported successes, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Army officers and technical staff involved in the vehicle development project are lobbying the Army Command to authorize mass production of the armored fighting vehicle, as its prototype is poised to achieve operational capability, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The Armaments Bureau developed the 105mm main gun and a dedicated turret in collaboration with the Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology, and the army’s Armor Training Command and Armor School, the source said.
The aim of the project was to test the bureau’s ability to develop “a low-recoil main gun for fighting vehicles and a fire-control system,” the source said, adding that the institute was tasked with research and development.
In an inspection conducted last year by then-deputy minister of national defense Wang Shin-lung (王信龍), the prototype demonstrated fire-on-the-move capability against moving targets with no missed shots, the source said.
That level of performance was a match for, if not superior to, armored fighting vehicles fielded by the army, they said.
After the demonstration, the project gained the Armor Training Command’s unreserved support, they added.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
RSS