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Taiwan to add camps in Pratas islet to defend South China Sea claim

ROC Central News Agency

2011/08/06 21:58:23

Kaohsiung, Aug. 6 (CNA) The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) will sponsor more ecosystem camps in the Dongsha Islands as part of the government's effort to defend sovereignty claims in the disputed South China Sea, the agency's head said Saturday.

CGA Minister Wang Ginn-wang revealed the plan while greeting a group of graduate and undergraduate students upon their return from camp activities on the Dongsha (also known as the Pratas), the largest island group in the South China Sea.

The camp activities that began Wednesday were the first of their kind and aimed at enabling Taiwanese youths to experience life in the country's southernmost territory.

They were organized by the CGA in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of National Defense, the Marine National Park Administration and the Kaohsiung City Marine Bureau.

One of the 23 students in the group told Wang that she was full of emotion and shed tears when she attended a flag-raising ceremony on the islands Friday along with other students and the 100-plus CGA officers stationed on the remote atolls.

During their stay, the students observed power generation and seawarter desalination operations as well as efforts to conserve plant species and the ecosystem.

They also traveled offshore aboard a speed boat to see for themselves coast guard officers inspecting fishing boats operating in the region.

"All of these activities were designed to help our young students better understand the government's efforts to defend our claims to the disputed region," Wang said.

Six countries -- Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines -- claim all or part of the South China Sea.

Taiwan controls the Dongsha Islands and Taiping Island, the largest island in the Spratlys archipelago.

The unprecedented camp program came amid some countries' growing military buildup in the region.

The United Evening News reported Saturday that a second student group is scheduled to depart for the Dongsha Islands Aug. 24 to take part in a similar camp program.

The paper said government authorities are studying the feasibility of President Ma Ying-jeou meeting with the student group on the remote atoll to reinforce the country's claim.

Ma said earlier this year that organizing academic camps on the islet was one good way to defend the country's sovereignty claim to the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea. (By Johnson Sun and Sofia Wu) enditem/ls