Tag Archives: Taiwan

Super typhoon hits Taiwan, cutting power and transport

Damage from Typhoon Nepartak

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Super typhoon Nepartak hit Taiwan on Friday, driving thousands of people from their homes, disrupting power supplies and grounding more than 600 flights, authorities said.

Television showed toppled motorcycles and signboards being ripped from buildings and swept across roads in southeast Taiwan, where the year’s first typhoon made landfall.

By afternoon, the typhoon had moved into the Taiwan Strait, weakening as it headed towards China’s southeastern province of Fujian, but flooding and strong winds continued to lash the island’s central and southern areas.

More than 17,300 people were evacuated from their homes, and over 517,000 households suffered power outages, emergency officials said.

“The wind is very strong,” said a resident of Taitung, the eastern Taiwan city where the typhoon landed.

“Many hut roofs and signs have been blown off.”

Three deaths and 172 injuries were reported, bullet train services were suspended and over 340 international and 300 domestic flights canceled, an emergency services website showed.

The typhoon halted work in most of Taiwan. There were no reports of damage at semiconductor plants in the south.

Tropical Storm Risk had rated the typhoon as category 5, at the top of its ranking, but it was weakening and should be a tropical storm by the time it hits Fujian on Saturday morning.

More than 4,000 people working on coastal fish farms in Fujian were evacuated and fishing boats recalled to port, the official China News Service said.

The storm is expected to worsen already severe flooding in parts of central and eastern China, particularly in the major city of Wuhan.

Typhoons are common at this time of year in the South China Sea, picking up strength over warm waters and dissipating over land.

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot cut a swathe of destruction through southern Taiwan, killing about 700 people and causing damage of up to $3 billion.

(Reporting by Faith Hung and J.R. Wu; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Suspected homemade bomb injures 25 on Taiwan train

A bomb disposal expert checks a train after an explosion at the Songshan train station in Taipei, Taiwan July 7, 2016. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan authorities said on Friday a 55-year-old man, most likely acting alone, was the key suspect in a bombing on a train that injured 25 passengers.

Police said the attack was carried out with a suspected homemade pipe bomb and unlikely to be terror-related.

Liu Po-liang, commissioner of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, named the suspect as Lin Ying-chang, who was among the injured in the blast late on Thursday and was in critical condition in hospital.

Authorities described the explosive device as a steel tube 47 cm (19 inches)-long, filled with pyrotechnic gunpowder.

Based on evidence including Lin’s injuries and clothing and surveillance video of his movements before boarding the train, he likely acted alone, Liu told a news conference.

Surveillance video shown at the news conference showed Lin carrying a long red bag that investigators had found in one of the train cars, which police said may have been used to transport the device.

“We have locked on Lin as the suspect,” Liu said. “Currently it doesn’t appear that he had accomplices.”

Liu said it might be a few days before authorities can question Lin due to his injuries. It remained unclear how the device was set off, he said.

Premier Lin Chuan said on television the attack appeared to be a deliberate “act of malice”. The bomb went off just before the train entered a station in Taipei, the capital.Television showed people with burned limbs and faces being taken to hospital.

“Our initial investigation has ruled out terror,” Wang Bao-chang of Taiwan’s National Police Agency told reporters earlier, adding there had been no claim of responsibility.

(Reporting by J.R. Wu; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Taiwan, China batten down hatches as super typhoon approaches

Typhoon Nepartak

TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) – Taiwan and China began battening down the hatches on Thursday ahead of the arrival of super Typhoon Nepartak, the first of the year, with fears in China that storm could worsen already severe flooding in the east of the country.

The typhoon is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s mountainous but sparsely populated east coast in the early hours of Friday, where it will loose much of its strength, before crossing over the Taiwan Strait and hitting China on Saturday.

The typhoon has been labeled a category 5 storm on a scale of 1 to 5 by Tropical Storm Risk making it a super typhoon but it should weaken to a topical storm by the time it reaches China.

In Taiwan, authorities announced financial markets would be shut on Friday as cities across the island, including Taipei, announced work and school closures. Airlines began cancelling flights and the bullet train service was suspended.

The island’s weather authorities estimated wind speeds near Nepartak’s center were at least 200 kph (124 mph).

Widespread flooding across central and southern China over the past week has killed about 130 people, damaged more than 1.9 million hectares of crops and led to direct economic losses of more than 38 billion yuan ($5.70 billion).

The city of Wuhan on the Yangtze River, home to 10 million people, has been particularly badly affected, with flooded subway lines and power cuts.

The typhoon is expected to push more rain into already flooded areas in and around Wuhan, the Xinhua news agency said.

Wuhan is a hub for the auto industry, though automakers including Honda <7267.T>, Nissan <7201.T> and state-owned Dongfeng <0489.HK> reported no disruptions.

Peugeot’s <PEUP.PA> venture there said it launched emergency contingency plans, including deploying a sewage pump truck, but factory operations were uninterrupted and its vehicle warehouse unaffected.

Fujian province, opposite Taiwan, has canceled all ferries to Taiwan and Taiwan-controlled islands, and suspended some trains, while Guangdong province has told fishing boats to return to port, the central government said on its website.

Typhoons are common at this time of year in the South China Sea, picking up strength over warm waters and dissipating over land.

Typhoons used to kill many people in China but the government now enforces evacuations and makes preparations well in advance meaning death tolls in recent years have been much lower.

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot cut a wide path of destruction over southern Taiwan, killing about 700 people and causing $3 billion worth of damage.

(Reporting by Taipei newsroom, Ben Blanchard and Jake Spring; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Super Typhoon Nepartak; Taiwan to take full brunt of storm

Typhoon Nepartak set to hit Taiwan and China

By Kami Klein

Until now the northwest Pacific has enjoyed the longest extended streak on record almost 200 days without a named storm.  But today, the first super typhoon of 2016 is set to hit Taiwan and China Thursday night into Friday, according to The Weather Channel.  

Considered a Category 5 equivalent tropical cyclone, with sustained winds at times of 175 mph, forecasters predict this to be the strongest Super Typhoon since Typhoon Soudelor in August of 2015. Soudelor  caused massive rains of up to 50 inches in the mountains, 3.6 million homes with no power, massive flooding, and mudslides. There were 40 confirmed deaths and hundreds injured.

According to local reports, Taiwan’s Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan was confident that Taiwan’s international airport would avoid flooding due to management having all water channels cleared of stones and dirt and water pumps ready.  Sandbags have also been placed.  Food prices have risen in anticipation of this dangerous storm.

USA Today reports that, Nepartak has seen gusts of up to 207 mph.  Taiwan’s military has mobilized thousands of troops and Premier Lin Chuan was briefed by emergency officials Wednesday morning.

A hurricane and typhoon are the same kinds of storms. West of the International Date Line these storms are called typhoons. A Super Typhoon is a storm where the sustained winds reach 150 mph.

For Taiwan, although the incredibly intense winds are dangerous, the concern for the public is mainly for flash flooding and mudslides which will threaten the most lives.

 

China warns U.S. on visit by Dalai Lama, Taiwan President

he Dalai Lama speaks at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington

BEIJING (Reuters) – China warned the United States on Tuesday to stick by its promises not to support any separatist activities, ahead of a U.S. visit by Taiwan’s new president and a possible meeting between the Dalai Lama and U.S. President Barack Obama.

The self-ruled, democratic island of Taiwan and the remote mountainous region of Tibet are two of China’s most sensitive political and diplomatic issues.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said both issues involved the “one China” policy, a basic diplomatic tenet referring to both Taiwan and Tibet being part of China that Beijing insists foreign governments recognize.

“I can responsibly tell you that on this issue the U.S. government has made solemn promises, which is to uphold a one China policy,” Lu told a daily news briefing.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will transit in Miami on her way to Panama, one of the island’s few diplomatic allies, for the expansion ceremony of the Panama Canal and stopover in Los Angeles on her return, Taiwan deputy foreign minister Javier Ching-shan Hou said on Tuesday.

Her trip abroad from June 24 to July 2 will also include a state visit to another ally, Paraguay, the government said.

Travel abroad is sensitive for Taiwanese leaders who have angered China in the past because it is seen as exerting sovereignty.

China is suspicious of Tsai, who assumed office last month, as she is also head of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Lu said the U.S. has said it opposes Taiwan independence.

“We demand the U.S. government earnestly stands by its promises, conscientiously handle the relevant issue in accordance with the one China principle and not give any space to any individual or behavior which tries to create two Chinas, one China one Taiwan, or to split China,” he added.

Taiwan deputy minister Hou gave no details on who Tsai would meet while in the U.S.

On the issue of the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing brands a dangerous separatist, Lu said the United States also recognizes that Tibet is an inseparable part of China.

“The 14th Dalai Lama often puts up the facade of religion to peddle internationally his political position of splitting China,” he said.

“We demand no country or government give him any space for such activities and should certainly not do anything the 1.3 billion people of China would resolutely oppose.”

Asked if he would meet Obama during his three-day visit to Washington, exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama told Reuters on Monday it was “not finalised, but some friends say he may meet me”.

The Dalai Lama says he simply wants genuine autonomy for Tibet rather than independence.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by J.R. Wu in Taipei)

6.1 Earthquake shook Taiwan on Tuesday

TAIPEI (Reuters) – An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 shook parts of Taiwan on Tuesday and was felt in the capital, Taipei, residents and officials said, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The U.S. Geological Survey originally recorded the quake, centered about 110 km (70 miles) northeast of Taipei, with a magnitude of 6.4. Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau put the magnitude at 7.2.

(Reporting by Taipei newsroom; Editing by Paul Tait)

New Taiwan president urges China to drop historical baggage

aiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen addresses during an inauguration ceremony in Taipei

By J.R. Wu and Faith Hung

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s new president urged China on Friday to “drop the baggage of history” in an otherwise conciliatory inauguration speech that Beijing’s Communist Party rulers had been watching for any move towards independence.

President Tsai Ing-wen was sworn in with Taiwan’s export-driven economy on the ropes and China, which views the self-ruled island as its own, looking across the Taiwan Strait for anti-Beijing sentiment that could further sour economic ties.

Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has traditionally favored independence, won parliamentary and presidential elections by a landslide in January on a voter backlash against creeping dependence on China. It takes over after eight years under China-friendly Nationalist Ma Ying-jeou.

Tsai, Taiwan’s first woman president, said Taiwan would play a responsible role and be a “staunch guardian of peace” with China.

“Cross-Strait relations have become an integral part of building regional peace and collective security,” she told thousands outside the presidential office.

“The two governing parties across the Strait must set aside the baggage of history and engage in positive dialogue for the benefit of the people on both sides.”

China, which has never renounced force to take control of what it considers a renegade province, said this month the new Taiwan government would be to blame for any crisis that might erupt.

Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to Taiwan after losing the civil war to the Communists in China in 1949. China has pressured the new government to stick to the “one China” principle agreed with the Nationalists. That allows each side to interpret what “one China” means.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Tsai’s remarks were an “incomplete answer”, warning that China saw any push for Taiwan independence as “the biggest menace to peace across the Taiwan Strait”, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, asked about the inauguration, merely praised the record of the “one China” policy.

“Regardless of what internal changes take place within Taiwan, China will uphold the one China principle and oppose Taiwanese independence,” she told a briefing.

“LET’S SET ASIDE DISPUTES”

In a sign of a deteriorating economy, Taiwan’s export orders fell more than expected in April, their 13th straight month of decline, according to data released on Friday, as demand in China and other global markets remained weak.

Taiwan markets reacted calmly to Tsai’s speech. The main stock index reached an intraday high as she spoke, before closing 0.4 percent higher.

Tsai pledged to abide by the constitution of the Republic of China, Taiwan’s formal name, and promised to safeguard the island’s sovereignty and territory.

She also mentioned the East China and South China Seas, where an increasingly muscular China has been at odds over territorial claims with its neighbors.

“Regarding problems arising in the East China Sea and South China Sea, we propose setting aside disputes so as to enable joint development,” she said.

The American Institute in Taiwan, which represents U.S. interests in the island in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, said it looked forward to working with the new government.

The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979 but is also Taiwan’s biggest ally and arms supplier.

China is deeply distrustful of Tsai’s DPP, whose charter includes a clause promoting “a sovereign and independent Republic of Taiwan”.

Voted in by a Taiwanese public equally distrustful of growing economic dependence on China, the DPP also champions Taiwan’s own history. There were massive protests in 2014 that stalled a trade pact with China and were a key element of the DPP’s rise.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON and Megha Rajagopalan in BEIJING; Editing by Paul Tait and Nick Macfie)

U.S. Navy Officer faces espionage charges

HONOLULU (Dec. 3, 2008) Lt. Edward Lin, native to Taiwan, shares his personal stories about his journey to American citizenship to a group of 80 newly nationalized citizens

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Navy officer with access to sensitive U.S. intelligence faces espionage charges over accusations he passed state secrets, possibly to China and Taiwan, a U.S. official told Reuters on Sunday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the suspect as Lieutenant Commander Edward Lin, who was born in Taiwan and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen, according a Navy profile article written about him in 2008.

A redacted Navy charge sheet said the suspect was assigned to the headquarters for the Navy’s Patrol and Reconnaissance Group, which oversees intelligence collection activities.

The charge sheet redacted out the name of the suspect and the Navy declined to provide details on his identity.

It accused him twice of communicating secret information and three times of attempting to do so to a representative of a foreign government “with intent or reason to believe it would be used to the advantage of a foreign nation.”

The document did not identify what foreign country or countries were involved.

The U.S. official said both China and Taiwan were possible but stressed the investigation was still going on.

The suspect was also accused of engaging in prostitution and adultery. He has been held in pre-trial confinement for the past eight months or so, the official added.

USNI News, which first reported Lin’s identity, said he spoke fluent Mandarin and managed the collection of electronic signals from the EP3-E Aries II signals intelligence aircraft.

The U.S. Navy profiled Lin in a 2008 article that focused on his naturalization to the United States, saying his family left Taiwan when he was 14 and stayed in different countries before coming to America.

“I always dreamt about coming to America, the ‘promised land’,” he said. “I grew up believing that all the roads in America lead to Disneyland.”

The Navy’s article can be seen here: http://1.usa.gov/1SIEJDe

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he was not aware of the details of the case. He did not elaborate. China’s Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had no information on the case. Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing and J.R. Wu in Taipei; Editing by Michael Perry)

5.5 Earthquake off Northeast Taiwan

AIPEI (Reuters) – An earthquake measuring 5.5 magnitude struck off the northeast coast of Taiwan on Monday, the island’s Central Weather Bureau said, shaking buildings in the capital Taipei, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Earthquakes are common in Taiwan. In February, a 6.4 magnitude quake toppled a large apartment complex in southern Taiwan killing over 100 people.

(Reporting by J.R. Wu; Editing by Michael Perry)

U.S. sees new Chinese activity around South China Sea shoal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has seen Chinese activity around a reef China seized from the Philippines nearly four years ago that could be a precursor to more land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea, the U.S. Navy chief said on Thursday.

The head of U.S. naval operations, Admiral John Richardson, expressed concern that an international court ruling expected in coming weeks on a case brought by the Philippines against China over its South China Sea claims could be a trigger for Beijing to declare an exclusion zone in the busy trade route.

Richardson told Reuters the United States was weighing responses to such a move.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.

Richardson said the U.S. military had seen Chinese activity around Scarborough Shoal in the northern part of the Spratly archipelago, about 125 miles west of the Philippine base of Subic Bay.

“I think we see some surface ship activity and those sorts of things, survey type of activity, going on. That’s an area of concern … a next possible area of reclamation,” he said.

Richardson said it was unclear if the activity near the reef, which China seized in 2012, was related to the pending arbitration decision.

Asked about Richardson’s statement, Lu Kang, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said it was hypocritical for the United States to criticize China for militarizing the region when it carries out its own naval patrols there.

“This is really laughable and preposterous,” he said.

The Philippine foreign ministry said it had yet to receive a report about Chinese activity in Scarborough Shoal.

A Philippine military official who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media said he was unaware of a Chinese survey ship in the area.

“China already has de facto control over the shoal since 2012 and they always have two to three coastguard ships there. We are also monitoring their activities and movements,” the official told reporters.

Richardson said China’s pursuit of South China Sea territory, which has included massive land reclamation to create artificial islands elsewhere in the Spratlys, threatened to reverse decades of open access and introduce new “rules” that required countries to obtain permission before transiting those waters.

He said that was a worry given that 30 percent of the world’s trade passes through the region.

Asked whether China could respond to the ruling by the court of arbitration in The Hague by declaring an air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, as it did to the north, in the East China Sea, in 2013, Richardson said: “It’s definitely a concern.

“We will just have to see what happens,” he said. “We think about contingencies and … responses.”

Richardson said the United States planned to continue carrying out freedom-of-navigation exercises within 12 nautical miles of disputed South China Sea geographical features to underscore its concerns about keeping sea lanes open.

JOINT PATROLS?

The United States responded to the East China Sea ADIZ by flying B-52 bombers through the zone in a show of force in November 2013.

Richardson said he was struck by how China’s increasing militarization of the South China Sea had increased the willingness of other countries in the region to work together.

India and Japan have joined the U.S. Navy in the Malabar naval exercise since 2014, and were due to take part again this year in an even more complex exercise that will take place in an area close to the East and South China Seas.

South Korea, Japan and the United States were also working together more closely than ever before, he said.

Richardson said the United States would welcome the participation of other countries in joint patrols in the South China Sea, but those decisions needed to be made by the countries in question.

He said the U.S. military saw good opportunities to build and rebuild relationships with countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines and India, which have all realized the importance of safeguarding the freedom of the seas.

He cited India’s recent hosting of an international fleet review that included 75 ships from 50 navies, and said the United States was exploring opportunities to increase its use of ports in the Philippines and Vietnam, among others – including the former U.S. naval base at Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Bay.

But he said Washington needed to proceed judiciously rather than charging in “very fast and very heavy,” given the enormous influence and importance of the Chinese economy in the region.

“We have to be sophisticated in how we approach this so that we don’t force any of our partners into an uncomfortable position where they have to make tradeoffs that are not in their best interest,” he said.

“We would hope to have an approach that would … include us a primary partner but not necessarily to the exclusion of other partners in the region.”

(Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in Manila and Megha Rajagopalan in Beijing; Editing by Peter Cooney and Nick Macfie)