Search
  • SRI APP
  • Publications
    • Seafarers’ Rights Book
    • Fishers and Plunderers Book
    • Voyages of Abuse Book
    • Annual Reviews
      • SRI Annual Review 2012
      • SRI Annual Review 2013
    • Forward Newsletter Archive
  • Press Releases
  • News
    • SRI In The News
    • Industry News
    • SRI Blog
  • Associated Entities
  • Branch Offices
  • Contact Us
Top Bar Menu
Seafarers' Rights InternationalSeafarers' Rights International
Seafarers' Rights International
international centre for advancing the legal protection of seafarers
  • Home
  • About us
    • Advisory Board
    • What we do
    • Our Mission
    • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Research Subjects
    • Abandonment of Seafarers
    • Deaths and Injuries at Sea
    • Fair Treatment of Seafarers
    • Fishers and Plunderers
    • Flag State Responsibilities
    • Human Rights
    • Maritime Labour Convention (MLC)
    • Piracy
    • Refugees and migrants at sea
    • Ship Arrest
    • Using Lawyers
    • Wages
  • Education
  • Lawyers Network
  • Legal Guides
    • Abandonment
    • Maritime Liens
    • Personal Injuries & Deaths
    • Ship Arrest
    • Using Lawyers
  • Fact Files
  • SRI Legal Database
    • Search the database
    • Articles
    • Case Laws
    • Codes
    • Contracts
    • Guidance
    • International Treaties
    • Legislation
    • Press Releases
    • Regulations
    • Reports
    • Seafarers’ Guides
    • External Legal Databases
Menu back  

Taiwanese Coast Guard Launches Biggest Ships

June 6, 2015Maritime Executive

By Reuters 2015-06-06 20:02:56

Taiwan’s coast guard commissioned its biggest ships for duty in the form of two 3,000-ton patrol vessels on Saturday, as the island boosts defenses amid concerns about China’s growing footprint in the disputed South China Sea.

The new vessels will be able to dock at a new port being constructed on Taiping Island, the largest of the naturally occurring Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, before the end of this year.

Taiwan’s coast guard has had direct oversight of the 46-ha (114-acre) island, also known as Itu Aba, since 2000.

“Taiping Island’s defense capabilities will not be weak,” said Wang Chung-yi, minister of the Coast Guard Administration, referring to recent upgrading done on the 1,200-metre (yards) long airstrip on Taiping and the building of a new port, which he said could be completed as early as October this year.

“As far as Taiping Island is concerned, we still maintain not so much a military as a civil role,” Wang told Reuters in an interview in Taipei. Taiwan will not create conflict, but if it is provoked “we will not concede,” he said.

Unlike the Philippines and Vietnam, Taiwan has largely avoided becoming ensnared in public disputes with China over the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.

Beijing claims most of the South China Sea, while the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also have overlapping claims.

Rival claims by Taiwan and China go back to before defeated Nationalists fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war with the Communists in 1949.

Beijing sees self-ruled Taiwan as a renegade province to be retaken one day and bans actions that would confer sovereignty, such as negotiating territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou boarded one of the new ships on Saturday, observing rescue drills in waters off the southern Taiwan port city of Kaohsiung.

One of the vessels will be sent to the South China Sea, while the other will be assigned to waters north of Taiwan where it has overlapping claims with Japan.

Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper reported on Saturday that Group of Seven leaders meeting in Germany on Sunday would express their concern over any unilateral action to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas.

China has been criticized for extensive reclamation work and moves to turn submerged rocks into man-made structures. The United States last week said Beijing had placed mobile artillery systems in contested territory.

This post was sourced from Maritime Executive: View original article here.

About the author

Sam Cranwell

Related posts
Rumors of OOCL Sale Intensify
January 17, 2017
MSC Breaks Ground at New Private Island
January 17, 2017
Ex-Maritime Administrator Joins HMS Global Maritime
January 17, 2017
MLC Abandonment Provisions Enter into Force
January 17, 2017
Norway Awards Fifty-Six Offshore Licenses
January 17, 2017
Sinking Off Manila Leaves One Dead, Five Missing
January 16, 2017
NEWS CATEGORIES
  • SRI Blog
  • Industry News
  • Press Releases
  • SRI In The News
FEATURED NEWS
  • Hance Smith - World Fisheries Day at the FAO

    WORLD FISHERIES DAY – SRI speak at the FAO

    December 5, 2016 5:58 pm

    On World Fisheries Day (21st Nov 2016), Professor Hance Smith represented SRI at a special event hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) at the... Read more →

  • Seafarers' Rights International Abandonment Film

    SRI launch new film to raise awareness of abandonment of seafarers

    June 24, 2016 12:46 pm

    In the run up to the International Day of the Seafarer on June 25, 2016, SRI has released a short hard-hitting film designed to raise awareness of the ever present... Read more →

  • How Apps Are Improving Seafarer Welfare Onboard Ships

    May 16, 2016 3:28 pm

    Since the launch of our app in December, 2014, we’ve been encouraged by others who are following suit to improve the access to information given to seafarers while at sea.... Read more →

  • Deirdre Fitzpatrick SRI Seafarers' Rights International

    SRI LAUNCHES GLOBAL STUDY INTO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF THE MARITIME LABOUR CONVENTION

    April 26, 2016 11:04 am

    As the third anniversary of the entry into force of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC) approaches, Seafarers’ Rights International (SRI) is embarking on a comprehensive study on the effectiveness of the Convention. The study has been commissioned by the International Transport Workers’ Federation. It will be an in-depth and... Read more →

Seafarers' Rights International

© 2016 Seafarers' Rights International

SRI has endeavoured to make the information on this website and database as accurate as possible but cannot take any responsibility for any errors.

Registered in England and Wales: No: 7217092

Acceptable Use Policy | Terms of use | Privacy & Cookies Policy
Website by: Provide Design