Taiwanese to Philippine Marines: Thank You for Saving Me!

A Taiwanese tourist whose husband was killed by gunmen in a kidnapping incident at a Malaysian island resort returned to Taiwan yesterday and thanked Filipino soldiers who rescued her in southern Philippines.

Television footage showed Chang An-wei, 58, dressed in a loose T-shirt and wearing sunglasses, walking to a minibus parked at an airport near Taipei after she arrived early afternoon, waving briefly to the media and giving a thumbs-up sign.

Taiwanese media said she is expected to go to a hospital in Taipei for medical check-ups later yesterday.
Chang was found by Philippine Marines at a village near Talipao, a town on the remote island of Jolo where Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants are known to operate, and was taken to a local military hospital for a medical check-up on Friday.

“I think I just want to say I deeply appreciate the Philippine military for giving me such a big help and assistance to rescue me. Thank you very much,” Chang said in English in a pre-recorded message aired by several Taiwanese news channels yesterday.

Chang and her husband Hsu Li-min were holidaying on Pom Pom island in Sabah state, which is near the Sulu island group that includes Jolo, when gunmen attacked on Nov. 15, kidnapping her and killing her husband, according to Taiwanese officials and media.

Foreign ministry officials in Taiwan said that Hsu’s body was cremated in Malaysia and that his family brought back his ashes to Taiwan last month.

Taiwanese media said Chang’s family allegedly paid the kidnappers around $300,000 in ransom to secure her release.

“She was not abused ... the kidnappers wanted money, not her life,” Chang’s brother Chang Ta-kung said.
He declined to disclose any detail relating to the negotiations for her release.

Local authorities said the identities of Chang’s kidnappers were unknown, though Abu Sayyaf gunmen who are known to carry out kidnappings operate in the area.

A Jordanian television reporter, Bakr Atyani, walked free from a Jolo jungle earlier this month, 18 months after he was abducted by the Islamist militants. 

The Abu Sayyaf is a small Islamist movement that has been blamed for a string of terrorist attacks and kidnappings of foreigners in the Philippines.

US Special Forces have been rotating through Jolo and other parts of the southern Philippines for more than a decade to train local troops battling the group, which is on Washington’s list of “foreign terrorist organisations”.

Abu Sayyaf gunmen are believed still to hold a number of foreign as well as Filipino hostages in Jolo, including two European birdwatchers and a Japanese treasure hunter, according to local officials.
It was founded with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network to fight for an independent Islamic state, though it later turned into a criminal gang.

Dutchman Ewold Horn and Lorenzo Vinciguerra of Switzerland were abducted in the Tawi-Tawi island group near Jolo in February last year, while Amer Mamaito Katayama of Japan was abducted on the island of Pangutaran near Jolo in July 2010.

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China plans to build 2 aircraft carriers

TAIPEI – China’s plans to build two more aircraft carriers, in addition to the first in its fleet, will be a cause of concern for the United States, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the Philippines, a Taiwan official said on Tuesday.

Joseph Shih-Chie Hua, Cultural and Educational Affairs-Mainland Affairs Council director general, said if completed, the two aircraft carriers would make China “very powerful in the region.”

“If China wants to build two, now they have already one aircraft carrier... at that time I think the Chinese navy probably is very powerful in the region,” he said.

“So not just Taiwan, probably it will cause concern in the United States, Japan, South Korea and even the Philippines,” Hua told journalists from different countries invited by the Taiwan government to meet with President Ma Ying-jeou and other officials.

“If China wants to build three aircraft carriers for combat troops, such move means that they have already changed the strategical map.”

Earlier, Tsai Teh-sheng, Taiwan National Security Bureau chief, said China plans to build two aircraft carriers in addition to the first in its fleet, a refitted former Soviet carrier currently undergoing sea trials.

Construction of the warships is slated to start in 2013 and 2015, with delivery dates in 2020 and 2022, and that they would be conventionally powered, Tsai added.

Tsai said since mid-2011, China had conducted six sea trials of its first carrier.

Taiwan expected it to go into service before the end of this year, Tsai added.

However, Hua said building two aircraft carriers and their maintenance would be too costly for China.

“That’s their toy,” he said.

“Do you know how much money you have to spend building carriers, not just carrier? You need three naval ships to protect this carrier, and under water you need a submarine, now you want to put up a conventional powered aircraft carrier, it’s very expensive.”

“A book I’ve read while I was in college about balance of power, it’s very interesting that we have power on this side and contravening power on the other side. So we have balance of power,” Hua said.

“When China was a weak party it was sticking beside the United States and Soviet Union; when China had trouble with Soviet Union, the United States tried to play the China card; but when the evil empire falls apart what (will) China do, but China found a new role because of economic growth, the second largest economy in the world.

“We do live in interdependent world, not just economically but socially.”

In his inauguration speech last Sunday, Taiwan President Ma said his administration would maintain an “effective deterrent” while pursuing detente with China in the years ahead.

Ties between China and Taiwan have improved significantly since the Beijing-friendly Ma became president in 2008.

China regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification, although it has governed itself since they separated in 1949 after a long civil war.

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Cecille Suerte Felipe | The Philippine Star | May 24, 2012 | Article Link

Taiwan warns SEA: Watch out for Chinese military buildup

TAIPEI: A Taiwanese official on Wednesday warned the Philippines and its Southeast Asian neighbors to be wary of China’s aggressive military buildup.

According to Joseph Shih-Chie Hua, director general of Cultural and Educational Affairs-Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan, China’s efforts to modernize its military should not only raise concerns in Taiwan, but also in other countries in the region.

He said that besides Taiwan and the Philippines, countries like the United States, Japan and South Korea should also keep an eye on Beijing’s massive military development.

Hua issued the statement in reponse to a US Defense Department (USDD) report suggesting that China has been aggressively modernizing its military by producing a number of carriers over the next decade.

In its annual report to the US Congress, the department described an ambitious Chinese military program aimed at transforming the People’s Liberation Army into a modern force that is fueled by military spending.

“Its main goals include preserving Communist Party rule and preparing for possible hostilities in the Taiwan Strait,“ the report said.

Hua shared the Pentagon’s view, saying that it is very expensive to put up a conventionally powered aircraft carrier.

“That’s their toy, because do you know how much money you have to spend [in] building carriers . . . You need three naval ships to protect this carrier, and under water you need a submarine [for it],” he added.

The Taiwanese official said that once the Chinese government modernizes its military, it will make the country the most powerful in the region.

“If China wants to build . . . three aircraft carriers, it means that [it has] already changed the strategical map. [If that happens], I think the Chinese Navy [would be] very powerful in the region,” he added.

He expressed fears that once the military buildup is finished, it would have the “capacity” to wipe out Taiwan.

China is not only engaged in a territorial conflict with the island-nation, but also with the Philippines over the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, also called Bajo de Masinloc.

The standoff started on April 10, when Chinese vessels prevented the Philippine warship BRP Gregorio del Pilar from arresting Chinese fishermen who were found exploiting marine sources in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

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Ritchie A. Horario | The Manila Times | May 24, 2012 | Article Link

China afraid of American intervention – Taiwanese

TAIPEI: The People’s Republic of China (PROC) would not attempt to launch any move to worsen its territorial dispute with the Philippines over the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal because it fears a possible intervention from the United States (US).

According to Arthur Ding, acting director of the Institute of International Relations at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, China wouldn’t want the shoal tensions to escalate because it is still in the process of improving its relationships with the member-countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).

He said that in case China makes a drastic move to confront other claimants of the disputed area, it will jeopardize its relations with Asean countries and will be an opportunity for the US to further get into the picture and establish its presence in the region.

He likewise said that China has been very careful with its actions on how to deal with the territorial dispute since it “can foresee the consequence if take actions.”

Because of this, Ding expressed optimism that the dispute in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) will not worsen and be solved peacefully.

“China does not want to alienate and jeopardize relations with neighboring countries and for the US to have an excuse to get more involved in this region,” he told a group of foreign journalists.

That is why, Ding said, the Taiwanese government has always been seeking for a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the territorial conflict in the South China Sea.

“There’s no doubt [that] there’s so many tension, probably some kind of frictions in South China Sea, which is claimed by different countries, Taiwan included. I don’t see the likelihood for the tension to escalate into a kind of major conflict, but it will be settled peacefully,” he added.

Apart from the Philippines and China, Taiwan had also been claiming sovereignty over the Panatag Shoal, which the Chinese call Huangyan Island.

Newly-inaugurated Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou on Sunday reaffirmed his government’s position that the disputed shoal is part of their territory.

To arrest the tensions, Ma had suggested a joint exploration of resources in the disputed area.

Tensions in the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea started when Chinese vessels prevented a Philippine navy ship from arresting Chinese fishermen who were found exploiting marine sources in the area.

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Ritchie Horario | The Manila Times | May 2, 2012 | Article Link

Philippines wants enhanced rules in West Philippine Sea

THE Philippines is looking for a more specific content of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea (DOC) by the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean).

In his speech at the Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting Monday, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Albert del Rosario called on his regional counterparts to join in pushing for a more comprehensive Code of Conduct (COC) being created by the Asean Working Group.

“The Philippines hopes that the Code of Conduct will be a real ‘move forward’ not merely in terms of form, but more importantly in substance,” del Rosario told his colleagues in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

He said the Philippines believe that the COC must include guidelines by which stakeholder-states are to conduct themselves in the West Philippine Sea; as well as the setting of mechanisms on dispute settlement including the appropriate structure for its effective implementation.

Also being pushed by the country is the clarification and segregation of disputed from non-disputed areas in accordance with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos); and the crafting of provisions relating to cooperative activities, as may be appropriate, for the disputed areas.

“We believe that a rules-based approach under the dispute settlement mechanism established in UNCLOS is the legitimate solution in addressing conflicting and overlapping claims in the West Philippine Sea,” added del Rosario.

Aside from the Philippines, the West Philippine Sea, particularly the Spratly Islands, is being disputed by fellow Asean members Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam, as well as China and Taiwan.

The DFA chief also opined that it would be best if such a compact guideline would be set first by the region before involving other parties.

“It is important for Asean to first agree among themselves on the draft text of the COC before meeting with China,” said del Rosario.

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SunStar.Com.Ph | April 2, 2012 | Article Link