TAIPEI – Taiwan had to use a mainland Chinese shipper to get vital materials to a $100 million port it is building on a disputed island in the South China Sea last month after it couldn’t find a local firm to do the job, Taiwanese officials said Friday.
A
coast guard official said the vessel from Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry, a
state-run company, was escorted by a Taiwanese patrol boat to Itu Aba Island on
what he called an unprecedented mission.
Two
other Taiwanese vessels monitored the ship while it unloaded its cargo of large
caissons, or watertight chambers used in the construction of piers.
China
claims virtually all of the South China Sea and is at loggerheads with other
claimants in the contested waters, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam.
Yet
the willingness of Zhenhua Heavy to accept such a contract from Taiwan, which
China regards as a renegade province, shows how Beijing is largely unfazed by
the work on Itu Aba.
Military
strategists say that is because Itu Aba could eventually fall into China’s
hands should it ever take over Taiwan, which it has vowed to do if Taipei
declares independence.
“China
is not overly concerned with what Taiwan is doing on Itu Aba given that it
believes it will one day control these islands,” said Ian Storey, a regional
security analyst at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
“Beijing
can live with this,” added Storey, calling the shipment unusual but adding it
does not suggest a new trend of cooperation between China and Taiwan over the
South China Sea.
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 disputed island in the
disputed 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 late this
year.
Liao
Jaw-chang, director of the construction division of Taiwan’s National
Expressway Engineering Bureau, the unit responsible for building the port, said
the Chinese vessel arrived at Itu Aba on Jan. 24 carrying 11 large caissons. It
left on Jan. 28.
Contractors
could not find a Taiwanese ship capable of transporting the caissons, Liao
said.
“This
kind of ship is not very common anywhere in the world. As far as I know, we’ve
never used a mainland ship for this purpose before,” Liao said.
While
Taiwan’s work on Itu Aba is drawing little flak from China, the need to use a
mainland vessel worried some Taiwanese legislators because of the potential
implications for national security, according to Liao and local media.
“There
were definitely some legislators who were concerned about the use of this
ship,” Liao said.
The
coast guard official, who declined to be identified because the issue touches
on national security concerns, added: “We’ve never had to engage in this kind
of supervisory mission before, escorting a mainland ship from Taiwan to Tai
Ping Island.”
Wang
Jue, the board secretary of Zhenhua Heavy, said he did not know the exact
details of the contract, but said the company had no problem accepting such
business from Taiwan.
China’s
Foreign Ministry said it was not aware of the situation.
Although
China-Taiwan ties have warmed since Ma Ying-jeou was elected Taiwan president
in 2008, there has been no political reconciliation or a lessening of military
distrust.
But
if conflict ever breaks out in the Spratlys, analysts and military attaches
believe China will aim to protect Itu Aba as its own, strongly aware of its
strategic value.
The
Spratlys are one of the main flash points in the South China Sea, where
military fortifications belonging to all claimants but 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 there permanently, Taiwanese officials said in
October.
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