To promote the President’s vision of Taiping Island as a supply base and center for humanitarian assistance and rescue operations, and in order to foster scientific research in the South China Sea in accordance with national policy, on Nov. 14 Minister of the Ocean Affairs Council (OAC) Hwung Hwung-Hweng led a delegation of representatives from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), the Ministry of National Defense (MND), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST),