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Lawrence Chung

Taiwan “will consider” a US Navy request should Washington ask to use the largest of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea for regional security purposes, the island’s defence minister said on Monday in response to a series of hypothetical questions from a member of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Yen De-fa told the opposition Kuomintang’s Johnny Chiang that Taiwan could also allow US warships to dock at Taiping Island, which is under Taipei’s control, for humanitarian operations.
Beijing views Taiwan – which broke away after the end of the civil war in 1949 – as its territory and subject to eventual union, if necessary by force.
Beijing has warned Washington, which has undertaken to support Taiwan’s security, against cooperating with Taipei militarily or supplying it with arms.


Beijing and Taipei lay territorial claims to most parts of the South China Sea, and have control on some of the contested islets in the Spratlys, where jurisdiction is claimed by several Southeast Asian countries.
China denies request for Hong Kong port call by American warship
At a parliament panel meeting, Yen told Chiang whether it was for humanitarian or regional security grounds, the island’s government would consider allowing US vessels access to Taiping Island if that suited Taiwan.
“If it is based on security concerns that would affect the region, we will consider that,” Yen said. “This must also be in line with our national interests.”

Chiang said that the regular presence of US aircraft carrier groups in international waters in the South China Sea was aimed at checking the military expansion of Beijing, and, according to Chiang, the US might eventually make a port call at Taiping Island in addition to Singapore and the Philippines.
The US naval sorties – on the grounds of freedom of navigation in international waters close to the contested islets in the South China Sea – draw protests from Beijing.


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Taiwan

Taiwan ‘will consider’ hosting US warships on Taiping Island for regional security

Taiping Island in the South China Sea could play host to US naval vessels if the circumstances suited Taiwan, a committee of the island’s parliament was told by its defence minister. Photo: AFP

FILE - In this Saturday, April 15, 2017, file photo released by the U.S. Navy, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson transits the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra as the U.S Navy aircraft carrier strike group is on a scheduled western Pacific deployment. South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported Monday, April 24, that South Korean naval ships will conduct training exercises with the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, as tensions surrounding the Korean Peninsula continue to eclipse those in the South China Sea. North Korea marks the founding anniversary of its military on Tuesday, and South Korea and its allies are bracing for the possibility that it could conduct another nuclear test or launch an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Sean M. Castellano/The U.S. Navy via AP, File)

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Defence minister says island’s government will consider allowing US vessels access to Taiping Island if it is in Taiwan’s interests.


South China Sea

US-China relations