The coast guard yesterday received a 600-tonne corvette, the newest addition to its fleet that is being increasingly tested by Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics. The vessel, the Chang Bin (長濱), was handed over to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) by its builder, Jong Shyn Shipbuilding Group, during a ceremony presided over by Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) in Kaohsiung. The Chang Bin is set to join two other 600-tonne Anping-class corvettes in the Eastern branch of the CGA.
"I encourage our Coast Guard personnel to safeguard safety in the gray zone and uphold our dignity in matters of sovereignty," Cho said during the event, referring to gray zone activities that are harmful to other countries but fall short of provoking a military response.
Cho's remarks came a day after five China Coast Guard vessels were spotted near waters south of Kinmen County, with four entering restricted waters around the outlying island in what could be classified as gray zone tactics.
Photo: CNA
Similarly, on Jan. 3, an undersea cable belonging to Chunghwa Telecom near Yehliu (野柳) in New Taipei City was damaged, likely by a ship owned by a Hong Kong entity and manned by a Chinese crew.
Though seemingly another gray zone act, there was no direct evidence proving the ship was connected to China.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
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