A French naval ship passed through the Taiwan Strait, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
The French vessel entered the Taiwan Strait on Monday night and sailed in a northerly direction, the ministry said, without identifying it.
The military monitored the vessel, the ministry said, adding that the situation was “as normal,” without elaborating.
Photo: AFP
There was no immediate comment from the French government.
Chang Ching (張競), a retired captain in Taiwan’s navy, told RW News that it was the French Navy’s frigate Prairial that made the voyage.
The Philippine Star last week reported that the Prairial was docked in Cebu as part of its operational deployment in the Indo-Pacific region.
Chang said that the French Navy has been highly active in the first island chain.
The Vendemiaire, a French frigate, joined US and Philippine ships at the Exercise Balikatan in April for the first time in the history of the drills, a month before the Bretagne guided missile destroyer visited Manila, Chang said.
The Prairial’s transit through the Taiwan Strait was not surprising, considering its visit in the Philippines last week and navigational hazards posed by Tropical Storm Trami and Typhoon Kong-rey, he said.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army is not likely to issue a response to the passage unless the ship made “pretentious and anti-factual claims,” RW News paraphrased Chang as saying.
China is not in principle opposed to rights of other nations’ navies to navigate freely in its surrounding seas, he said.
The Prairial was the third Western warship to sail in the Taiwan Strait this month after the Higgins, a US guided missile destroyer, and the Vancouver, a Canadian frigate, transited it together on Oct. 20.
The US Navy, occasionally accompanied by ships from allied countries, transits the Strait about once a month.
The French Navy has previously transited the strait, including last year.
Two German Navy ships sailed through it last month.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
RSS