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Kaohsiung Port can accommodate U.S. aircraft carrier: MND

ROC Central News Agency

2016/05/05 19:52:46

Taipei, May 5 (CNA) Kaohsiung Port in southern Taiwan is capable of accommodating the American aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, but no assessment has ever been made of the Taiwan military's ability to provide logistics support for such a vessel, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Thursday.

There is enough space and depth at the port to allow the Stennis to dock, said MND Vice Minister Hsu Pei-shan (許培山), a vice admiral and former Navy chief of staff, at a hearing of the legislative Foreign and National Defense Committee.

In making such a decision, however, there would be "other considerations" such as docking restrictions, no matter whether it is a military vessel or a merchant ship, Hsu said, in response to a lawmaker's question on whether Kaohsiung Port can accommodate the Stennis.

The question was raised after U.S. Senator Ted Cruz suggested on Twitter in late April that the Stennis should be rerouted to Taiwan since Beijing had refused to allow a U.S. carrier strike group, including the Stennis, to make a port call in Hong Kong amid strained relations over territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Noting that Kaohsiung Port is big enough to accommodate the world's largest container ship, the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) asked whether the Stennis could dock there.

In response, Hsu said that while the port is big and deep enough for the Stennis, he was not sure about logistics support since no such assessment had ever been made.

Navy Chief of Staff Liu Chih-pin (劉志斌) said the previous day that Taiwan currently has no naval ports that could accommodate a carrier strike group but the vessels could anchor off the coast.

On the question of an aircraft carrier docking at a non-military port, Liu said the military would have to assess such a situation.

(By Wang Cheng-chung and Elizabeth Hsu)
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