![]() In a written statement sent to Newsweek on Wednesday, Taiwan's Foreign Ministry reaffirmed its claim to Itu Aba but described its policies toward the island as a sign of Taipei's commitment to regional peace. This requires very careful assessment," he said. If the circumstances are not right, any action we take might be seen from the outside as provoking regional tensions. "Actions will be considered based on the actual situation. The sentiment was echoed on Monday by Tsai, Taiwan's spy chief, who rejected a renewed call to station Taiwanese marines on Itu Aba, as it does on Pratas.Īround 200 Taiwan Coast Guard personnel are stationed on Itu Aba and receive regular training from the country's marines, said Tsai, who later added that larger Coast Guard ships would resume patrols to the island in the near future.Īny decision to put Taiwanese marines on Itu Aba would first require a "holistic assessment" of the regional situation, Tsai said. Taiwan maintains runways and ports on Itu Aba and Pratas, but it has no intention of pursuing the type of island-building and militarization undertaken by China, Chiu Kuo-cheng, Taiwan's defense minister, said last year, citing the need to signal Taipei's desire for peace. While the Communist Party's designs on Taiwan proper remain the main focus of Taipei and Washington's collective defense preparations-Chinese warplanes have flown more than 4,600 sorties near the island since September 2020-the potential capture of outlying Taiwanese islands has long been posited as one possible scenario through which Beijing could coerce Taipei into surrendering political control. The Taiwanese government also exercises control over Pratas Island, or Dongsha, which is closer-about 280 miles southwest of Taiwan. Located nearly 1,000 miles southwest of Taiwan, Itu Aba, which Taipei calls Taiping Island, is the largest naturally occurring feature in the Spratly Islands, whose claimants also include China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. He repeatedly declined to confirm whether the American or Chinese vessels had entered the island's territorial sea. Quizzed in Taiwan's parliament on Monday, Taipei's head of intelligence, Tsai Ming-yen, told opposition lawmakers on the island's Foreign and National Defense Committee that personnel on Itu Aba had monitored all foreign ship movements. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Greg Johnson ![]() ![]() The Dewey conducted a freedom of navigation operation near the contested Spratly Islands, the third such operation in the region this year and the first in six months. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey conducts routine underway operations in the South China Sea on November 3, 2023.
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