UNABLE to get a local company to provide a ship to enter waters disputed by China, Taipei had to use a mainland shipowner willing to allow its vessel to be escorted by an armed Taiwanese patrol boat to Itu Aba island, Reuters reports.
Shipowner Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Company (ZPMC), the world's largest manufacturer of container quay cranes, was willing to be part of what amounted to a freedom-of-the-seas patrol by Taiwan's naval forces to its base in the disputed Spratly Islands.
China claims all of the South China Sea, but the claim is disputed by Taiwan, Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The object this voyage was to ship pier building caissons to a US$100 million Taiwanese naval base on the disputed island in the South China Sea last month after no suitable ship could be found in Taiwan said Taiwanese officials.
A coastguard official told Reuters the ship from state-owned ZPMC was also monitored by two Taiwanese vessels as it unloaded watertight chambers used in the construction of piers.
Taiwan has close security ties with the United States, which has been highly critical of Beijing's assertiveness in the South China Sea.
While Itu Aba, also called Tai Ping, is small, no other island in the disputed Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea has such sophisticated facilities.
It boasts a runway that is the bigger of only two in the Spratlys and the island has its own fresh water source. The port is expected to be finished later this year.
The Spratlys are one of the main flashpoints in the South China Sea, where military fortifications belonging to all claimants except Brunei are dotted across some of the world's busiest shipping lanes.
Itu Aba is Taiwan's only holding in the Spratlys and Taiwan is considering stationing armed vessels permanently there, Taiwanese officials said in October.
WORLD SHIPPING
10 February 2015 - 23:05
Taiwan charters ZPMC ship to get pier units to disputed Spratley base
UNABLE to get a local company to provide a ship to enter waters disputed by China, Taipei had to use a mainland shipowner willing to allow its vessel to be escorted by an armed Taiwanese patrol boat to Itu Aba island.
WORLD SHIPPING
10 February 2015 - 23:05
Taiwan charters ZPMC ship to get pier units to disputed Spratley base
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