Taiwan is on track to take delivery of 12 anti-submarine aircraft from the United States by mid-2015, a report said Wednesday, as it seeks to beef up its naval defenses against China.

Navy Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Hsu Pei-shan spelt out the timeframe when asked by a lawmaker about a possible delay in the delivery of the aircraft, the state Central News Agency reported.

A strong earthquake killed one person and injured at least 86 others in Taiwan on Wednesday as violent shock waves damaged buildings and triggered two blazes, emergency officials said.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at magnitude 6.0 and said it struck at 10:03 am (02:03 GMT), 48 kilometers (30 miles) east of Nantou county in central Taiwan at a depth of 20.7 kilometers.

Taiwan is set to produce 50 medium-range missiles next year that will target military bases in southeast China, a media report said on Monday.

The article came after former defense minister Michael Tsai revealed in a recently published book that the island successfully created medium-range guided missiles that could be used against rival China back in 2008.

The Philippines dispatched a new ambassador to China on Friday with a mandate to improve ties amid a festering territorial dispute between the South China Sea neighbours, the foreign department said.

Ambassador Erlinda Basilio left for Beijing to assume her post, which had been vacant since August last year, department spokesman Raul Hernandez said.

Beijing plans to send a survey team to land on small East China Sea islands at the center of a bitter territorial dispute with Japan, state media reported Tuesday, in what would be a major escalation of the row.

Chinese marine surveillance vessels regularly patrol what Beijing says are its waters around the Diaoyu islands, prompting accusations of territorial incursions by Tokyo, which controls the outcrops and refers to them as the Senkakus.

Thousands of anti-nuclear demonstrators rallied in Tokyo Saturday ahead of the second anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster, urging Japan's new government to abandon nuclear power.

The gathering of some 15,000 people, according to organisers, at a park in central Tokyo drew disaster victims and celebrities, including Nobel laureate writer Kenzaburo Oe, before the anniversary Monday of the disaster that killed 19,000 and sparked reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

A former Taiwanese air force officer has been given 12 life sentences for spying for China, a court said Wednesday, adding to a lengthy list of espionage cases that have rocked the island.

Lieutenant Colonel Yuan Hsiao-feng was convicted of passing unspecified military secrets to China between 2001 and 2007, said a High Court official.

A Taiwanese admiral has been questioned over his alleged involvement in one of the island's worst espionage cases, officials said Monday, as concerns mount over Chinese infiltration of the military.

Defence ministry spokesman David Lo announced the admiral has come under investigation, but declined to provide details.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou would consider cultural agreements with China, an official said Wednesday, triggering an angry response from the island's anti-Beijing opposition.

Lin Join-sane, chairman of the quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation became the first Taiwanese official to raise the possibility of a culture deal and said the view reflected that of Ma's.

China has agreed to lend art exhibits for a major joint exhibition in Taipei, the head of Taiwan's top museum said Sunday, as the two former rivals push ahead with detente.

Feng Ming-chu, director of Taipei's National Palace Museum, will fly to Beijing on Monday, the first such trip since 2009 when the chiefs of the museum and of Beijing's Palace Museum made landmark exchange visits.