Taiwan’s Marine and Port Bureau (MPB) on 4 June gave approval for two Chinese ships to work on an offshore wind farm project in the Taiwan Strait.
Platform vessel Huadian 1001 and tug Hai Gang 36 are scheduled to start work in late June near the median line of the Taiwan Strait and not enter any harbour in Taiwan to avoid reporting to the MPB.
However, the Bureau has been accused of flouting decisions made by the Legislative Yuan in 2014 and undermining national security for allegedly trying to “sneak in” Chinese engineering ships for a second time to operate in the offshore project.
The Bureau did this by ordering the ships’ application papers to be categorised as ‘classified information ‘, which would not be declassified for 10 years, according to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Last year, the two ships were prohibited from entering Taiwan’s territorial waters after discovering that the vessels have mainland registration.
A special team was formed by Taiwan’s National Security Bureau and its Ministry of Defense in January 2015 to conduct a thorough investigation on the mainland vessels, and their application can only be approved after receiving authorisation for clearance on risks to national security. DPP pointed out that the investigation has not taken place.
Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng promised that the ministry would double check the procedure and supply the needed authorisation papers for clearance on risks to national security.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
