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Checkpoints on shipping to ensure Taiwan's defense: Minister

ROC Central News Agency

Taipei, Nov. 17 (CNA) Minister of National Defense Chen Chao-min said Monday that his ministry will set up checkpoints to ensure that direct shipping links with China do not endanger Taiwan's defense network.

Chen added that there will be a total of six checkpoints established in the seas surrounding Taiwan but he refused to disclose their locations, citing national security.

"When discussions were made over the planning of direct shipping links and air transport with China, the government always placed national security as the top priority," Chen noted.

"In particular, on the issue of direct shipping links between the two sides, if any crisis situation should occur in our ports, I hereby guarantee that the Defense Ministry will be able to handle all relevant matters," he said.

"These checkpoints will examine every Chinese vessel making for Taiwanese ports. It is a measure that will ensure the safety of Taiwanese waters and Taiwan's national security," Chen added.

As for air transport, which involves the expansion of weekend direct cross-Taiwan Strait flights to cover weekdays, as well as the establishment of direct air cargo transport, Chen also pointed out that the Defense Ministry will make changes in its air defense system to take into account the changing situation.

In the past, flights between China and Taiwan have needed to first fly through Hong Kong air space. However, agreements signed Nov. 4 by Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) President Chen Yunlin, has made such a need irrelevant for the future.

"In the case of any other agreements signed by the SEF and ARATS, the responsibility of the Defense Ministry will not change, and that is to ensure our national security. This will remain our top priority, " Chen made clear.

Chen made the comments when questioned by ruling Kuomintang lawmakers at the Legislative Yuan, which is tasked with approving the signing of four agreements signed by the SEF and ARATS.

The four cross-strait agreements include the expansion of direct flights between Taiwan and China from weekends to weekdays, direct shipping links, postal exchanges and food safety.

A recent warming of cross-strait interaction began with the resumption of meetings between Chiang and Chen six months ago in Beijing. A more recent meeting between the two negotiators was held in Taipei Nov. 4-6, when Chen became the highest-ranking Chinese official to set foot on Taiwan in nearly 60 years since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

The SEF and ARATS are quasi-official organizations responsible for handling cross-strait engagements in the absence of official relations between the two sides of the strait. (By Andrew Lee) ENDITEM/J