China’s decision to honor three key military units that train for a hypothetical attack on Taiwan showed that its military is focused on potential battlefields in the Taiwan Strait, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a report.
Last month, nine advanced military training units were listed on an honor roll published by the Chinese Military Commission, with two of the units from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command and one from its Southern Theater Command.
The Eastern Theater Command would be the main attack force in a cross-strait war, the council said, adding that its two units were a submarine detachment and a special air support regiment.
Photo: Reuters
The unit from the Southern Theater Command, which was created to assist the main force, is part of an amphibious brigade, the council said.
“These three military units would constitute three key forces in a war against Taiwan: undersea warfare, special air support and amphibious warfare,” the MAC said. “This shows the tendency of the PLA to operate on battlefields in the Taiwan Strait.”
“More military units that are of the main attack force are expected to appear on the commission’s honor roll,” it said.
On Nov. 15 last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) told US President Joe Biden during a meeting in San Francisco that there was no plan to attack Taiwan in 2027 or 2035, but added that the problem must be solved eventually, the council said.
In his New Year’s address on Jan. 1, Xi called “the reunification of the motherland” a historical necessity, it added.
Xi’s call to resolve “the Taiwan issue at a certain moment” should be understood as a time when the balance of power between the US and China favors Beijing, rather than a specific timeline, it said.
Retired US Navy Admiral James Stavridis, who served as NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe commander from 2009 to 2013, said in an interview last year that China “will not be ready to take on the US in a very mature way for about 10 years.”
China’s capability and aggressiveness in building a massive fleet would be “inconsequential” given the strength of US military alliances, Stavridis said.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its