Malaysia has said that more than 100 Chinese fishing boats have been spotted within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off Sarawak and it planned to take action against them.

The boats were sighted near Beting Patinggi Ali, also known as Luconia Shoals, about 100km off the coast of Miri in Sarawak.

The shoals are near the southern extreme of China’s so-called nine- dash line, according to previous media reports. China is claiming territories inside the nine-dash line which spans 90 per cent of the 3.5 million sq km South China Sea.

Malaysia’s Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim disclosed on Thursday that the government had dispatched three Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) vessels to the area. He did not specify what action would be taken. “Our Bombardier aircraft has also been sent to fly to that area where they saw a group of fishermen from China conducting activities in our waters,” Datuk Seri Shahidan told reporters.

He could not be reached yesterday, while a senior MMEA official declined to comment.

The incident comes on the heels of another near Indonesia’s Natuna Islands last Saturday. Jakarta said a Chinese patrol boat forcibly prevented Indonesian maritime authorities from detaining a Chinese fishing boat allegedly poaching in Indonesian waters. Eight crew members of the Chinese fishing boat were detained by Indonesia.

China maintained that the fishing boat was “in traditional Chinese fishing grounds”.

Asked about the Malaysian report at a regular briefing yesterday, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he did not “understand the details” of what the Malaysian government had said on the matter. “What I want to point out is that now is the fishing season in the South China Sea… At this time of year, every year, Chinese trawlers are in the relevant waters carrying out normal fishing activities,” Reuters quoted him as saying. He did not elaborate.

Malaysia has for years kept a low profile despite being a claimant in the dispute over contested territory in the South China Sea. But it can no longer afford to downplay incidents at sea involving Chinese vessels, according to Mr Ian Storey, a specialist in regional maritime security issues at Singapore’s Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute.

“Over the past few years, Kuala Lumpur has become increasingly irritated with China’s growing military and commercial presence in the country’s EEZ,” he said. He believed the number of incidents between the Chinese Coast Guard and Malaysian and Indonesian maritime authorities would increase as fish stocks get depleted in northern areas of the South China Sea.

“Beijing and the provincial authorities have encouraged fishing fleets to operate much farther south than before in order to satisfy the growing demand for seafood in China,” he said. Mr Storey said port facilities that China is building in the Spratlys will enable its Coast Guard to enforce Beijing’s jurisdictional claims.

euniceau@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on March 26, 2016.
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SEOUL/DAEJEON – Despite several early failures, Korean engineers and scientists are poised to leap into space, hoping to realise the country’s long-cherished goal of reaching the moon.

Following a late start, Asia’s fourth-largest economy went through many challenges to develop its own launch vehicle, which is key to the nation’s space project.

The efforts have paid off as Korea is now on the threshold of a new era in space technology, with its first lunar exploration planned for 2020. It is a massive project that could propel the country’s ambitions to go deeper into space.

Korea joined the global space club with the successful launch of a satellite into orbit in 2013. It plans to send to the moon a lander that can carry an artificial-intelligence rover programmed to explore rare minerals on its surface. A robotic orbiter designed to circle the moon will be sent on a foreign rocket in advance. This is scheduled for 2018.

The robotic orbiter will find a feasible spot for a lunar landing and also transmit data collected by the lander afterwards, engineers say.

“Reaching the moon itself is a symbolic mission for Korea,” said Choi Gi-hyuk, head of the lunar exploration research division at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.

“It signifies Korea crossing the threshold of space technology exclusively developed by advanced countries,” he said at his office in Daejeon.

Besides the area of technological advancements, the mission will also have an impact on national pride and geopolitical security.

In recent years, space films have been big hits at Korean theatres, promoting some critics to suggest that this reflects locals’ desire for extraterrestrial exploration and a natural curiosity toward space.

Flying 38,000 kilometers above the earth to the moon, requires great technical accuracy, Choi said, comparing the journey to throwing a ball from Seoul to hit a target in Busan.

Due to the possibility of using space technology for military purposes, such technical knowledge is not usually transferred from advanced countries due to defence reasons.

This is why Korea had to start from scratch.

Korea’s space programme officially began in 1989, nearly 40 years later than advanced countries such as US and Russia.

There are various reasons behind this delayed development.

Some critics say that the US may have put pressure on Korea not to develop space technology. However, Cho Gwang-rae, head of KARI, Korea’s NASA, said that the space projects were prioritized lower than the development of automobiles, shipping and petrochemical industries, which were pushed by the government as vehicles for economic growth.

“Korea has achieved this advancement in space technology in a short period of time. But we still have a long way to go,” he said.

Developing a rocket engine capable of travelling beyond the earth’s orbital sphere is the key, he said. In January, his team succeeded in solving problems with the combustion instability of a 75-ton engine — a hurdle that they have strived to overcome for years.

The launch vehicle, named the KSLV-II, is a three-stage rocket. It will be able to go up to 800 kilometers with four 75-ton liquid engines in the first projectile. The second will have one 75-ton engine and the third will have a single 7-ton engine.

If Korea succeeds with its lunar project in 2020, the country plans to send an orbiter to Mars in 2027.

As for when the country will see a Korean astronaut on the moon, Cho said, “For now, we have to secure technology capable of building a launch vehicle to the space. Then we can talk about Mars and exploration to deeper space.” He added that sending a human to space is a whole different concept for any space rocket developer.

“We may have to co-operate with the league of advanced nations for that in the future. But first, we must get a foot in the door.”

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The Kuomintang (KMT) will choose its seventh chairman in an election between four candidates on Saturday. Results are expected to be known by 7 p.m., while the party’s new leader could take office as early as Monday.

Candidates for the leadership include former Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu, Legislator Chen Shei-saint, Taipei City Councilor Lee Hsin and current acting Chairwoman Huang Min-hui. All four candidates made last-minute campaign stops on Friday in search of support among the party base. There are 337,148 KMT party members who will be eligible to cast their vote tomorrow at 476 polling stations nationwide.

Due to the higher number of candidates involved in Saturday’s race, the party will automatically initiate a second round of voting if the winner fails to garner over 50 per cent of the total vote.

Though Hung and Huang (seen as the front-runners) have called for the contest to be determined in the first round, analysts believe that the likelihood of a second round is not out of the question if Lee and Chen can each garner 10 per cent of the vote. Second round voting has been prescheduled to take place on April 16.

The party’s last elected leader, current New Taipei Mayor Eric Chu, stepped down after the party’s bruising electoral defeat this January in which he ran as president. Chu’s popularity took a dive when he replaced Hung as the party’s formally chosen presidential candidate breaking earlier promises that he would not run.

On Friday, Lee urged all party members to come out to vote, but also to bring their smartphones to “record and verify” that vote counting proceeded fraudulent-free. He has already accused the party of violating principles of neutrality, saying that local party chapters used resources to endorse a single candidate. He said that many party members told him that the party has never produced authentic numbers when it came to votes cast and tallied.

Huang on the other hand brandished her past electoral successes in traditionally pan-green areas, where she once served as mayor of Chiayi City. As the youngest of all four candidates, she said that “improving the KMT would also improve the country as a whole.”

Chen said Friday he would focus on coming in second in order to force the second round of voting.

Hung added while campaigning in New Taipei that “time was not on the party’s side” and that it would be best if a winner was determined in the first round of voting.