Taiwan taking monthly energy, food inventories in case of China conflict

Taiwan taking monthly energy, food inventories in case of China conflict
October 5, 2022, 9:53 am

Taiwan was returned to Nationalist Chinese control in 1945 following Japan’s defeat in World War II. However, in 1949 Chinese communist armies defeated Nationalist forces on the mainland and established the People’s Republic of China there. The Nationalist government and armies fled to Taiwan, again resulting in the separation of Taiwan from China - Text. Britannica - Photo. Pixabay

A government official in Taiwan said on Wednesday (October 5), the East Asian country is taking a monthly inventory of vital supplies such as food and energy in the face of conflict with China.

Following a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei in August, China, which claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its territory, began war games near the island, firing missiles and stepping up a blockade.

Taiwan Deputy Economy Minister Chen Chern-chyi told reporters that it is already codified in law to maintain energy stockpiles, which state-run Taipower and state-owned refiner CPC Corp do.

Chen said: "With respect to a possible military conflict, we do have preparations for food and for energy and critical supplies including manufacturing supplies. We have a system, we do inventory every month."

"We want to ensure we have a certain period of stockpiles in Taiwan, including food, including critical supplies, minerals, chemicals and energy of course."

Chinese and Taiwanese national flags are displayed alongside military airplanes in this illustration taken on April 9, 2021. (File photo: Reuters)

Taiwan's power mix is made up of liquefied natural gas (LNG), coal, nuclear and renewables, the latter of which the government is trying to scale up.

Chen added: "We remain very comfortable with respect to these possible energy security issues.”

Resource-poor Taiwan aims to generate more electricity from LNG in the shift away from both coal-powered and nuclear plants, and is building a massive new LNG terminal off its northwestern coast.

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Speaking separately at parliament where she was taking lawmaker questions, Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua said meetings have been taking place to discuss increasing LNG storage capacity.

Wang said: "Certainly when it comes to LNG storage, we have previously already had cross-department discussions on this.”

She added, those talks also involved whether to use Taiwan-flagged tankers to import LNG.

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