Lawmakers from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party are to visit Itu Aba (Taiping Island, 太平島) on Saturday next week to observe coast guard drills and inspect a newly constructed pier, an itinerary provided by the Legislative Yuan showed yesterday.
Twenty lawmakers from the two parties are to join the trip, which is to be led by Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee convener and KMT Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), the itinerary shows.
Taiping Island is a Taiwan-controlled island about 1,600km southwest of Kaohsiung.
Photo: Reuters
About 200 coast guard personnel overseen by the Coast Guard Administration under the Ocean Affairs Council are stationed there.
The island in the South China Sea is also claimed by Vietnam, China and the Philippines.
The inspection team is to depart for Pingtung Air Force Base in the afternoon of Friday next week after a Legislative Yuan meeting, the itinery shows.
They will then take a flight the next day at 7am and arrive on Taiping Island at about 10:30am.
Upon arrival, the team is first to take a group photo at a monument marking the island as a “key site of the Republic of China’s territory in the South China Sea,” receive an introduction to the island, observe coast guard drills, visit the newly constructed Taiping Island pier and then have lunch.
The lawmakers are scheduled to head back to Taiwan proper on a 1pm flight and are expected to arrive at Pingtung Airport at about 4:30pm, the itinerary shows.
The lawmakers originally planned to depart on Thursday next week, but the KMT caucus said it decided to postpone the trip because the Legislative Yuan is to vote on important bills on Friday next week.
Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers have not registered for the tour.
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