Taiwan puts South China Sea weather info online to assert sovereignty
ROC Central News Agency
2012/07/17 21:10:41
Taipei, July 17 (CNA) Taiwan has begun publishing weather information for the Pratas Islands and Spratly Islands on its official weather website as part of efforts to assert sovereignty over the disputed South China Sea region, an official said Tuesday.
Current weather conditions such as temperatures and precipitation on the two island groups were made accessible on the Central Weather Bureau's website from a day earlier, said Lee Hsing-yuan, chief of the bureau's public relations section.
The initiative, "in a sense, is aimed at asserting sovereignty" over the South China Sea region, Lee told CNA.
In recent months, there has been growing tension among other countries in the region -- such as China, Vietnam and the Philippines -- over territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The bureau has been cooperating with the Navy and the Coast Guard Administration, which have personnel stationed on the Pratas Islands and Spratly Islands, to collect weather information, Lee said.
The weather data is updated every hour, he added.
The information is available only in Chinese, although an English version will be included at an as-yet undetermined point in the future, Lee said.
Taiwan controls the Pratas Islands, 450 km off Taiwan's southwestern coast, as well as Taiping Island, the largest of the Spratlys, which lie about 1,600 km southwest of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan.
The South China Sea region, thought to be rich in oil deposits and marine biodiversity, is claimed either entirely or in part by Brunei, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines.
(By Elaine Hou)
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