Navy says unidentified object was neither whale nor submarine
ROC Central News Agency
2010/02/01 17:05:10
Taipei, Feb. 1 (CNA) The Navy said Monday that a suspicious object detected in Taiwan's territorial waters recently was neither a whale nor a Chinese submarine, as reported by local newspapers.
Lee Tung-fan, a commander of the Navy's 168th fleet, said one of the fleet's squadron was engaged in an anti-submarine drill in waters off Zuoying, southern Taiwan, on Jan. 27 when they detected an object just below the surface of the water.
The Navy ruled out the possibility of it being a whale or a dolphin and then continued to track it, but the object did not increase its depth to avoid detection, Lee said.
Instead, it maintained its speed at a steady two nautical miles per hour and was therefore ruled out as a submarine, Lee said.
He said the object was spotted at the edge of China's territorial waters. This, coupled with the complexity of the hydrology and contour of the continental shelf, makes detecting a submarine there more difficult.
"The 168th fleet has in the past detected suspected Chinese submarines encroaching on Taiwan but later ruled out the possibility," Lee said.
The Navy issued a statement Sunday confirming that it had encountered an unknown object during a drill, but it denied that it was a submarine based on further tracking and reconnaissance efforts.
Despite the navy rejected claims that it had spotted a Chinese submarine, opposition Democratic Progressive Party spokesman Tsai Chi-chang on Monday called on the government to rigorously enforce its offshore defense.
(By Sophia Yeh and Lilian Wu) enditem/ls
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