Flashpoints

Mainland Firm Lends a Hand as Taiwan Expands South China Sea Presence

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Flashpoints

Mainland Firm Lends a Hand as Taiwan Expands South China Sea Presence

A Shanghai shipping firm helped deliver materials Taiwan needs to construct a port in the disputed Spratly Islands.

Mainland Firm Lends a Hand as Taiwan Expands South China Sea Presence

ROC Coast Guard vessel

Credit: Wikimedia Commons / SSR2000

Taiwan sought help from a mainland Chinese shipping firm to further the construction of a port in the South China Sea, Reuters reports. Citing a coastguard official, Reuters said that a vessel from Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry was contracted to bring materials to Itu Aba Island, the largest of the Spratlys, which is controlled by Taipei but also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines, and mainland China.

According to Reuters, the vessel was escorted to Itu Aba by a Taiwanese patrol boat and monitored by Taiwanese ships as the cargo was unloaded. Taiwan turned to Zhenhua Heavy Industry after it couldn’t find a Taiwanese firm to deliver 11 cassions, watertight retaining structures to be used in building a pier on the disputed island. Liao Jaw-ching, director of the construction unit responsible for the port-building project on Itu Aba, told Reuters there were no Taiwanese ships able to deliver the cassions. “This kind of ship is not very common anywhere in the world,” Liao said.

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