Ministries assert claim over islands

The ministries of foreign affairs and the interior yesterday reiterated that the Tiaoyutai islands belong to Taiwan, opposing former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) claim that the islands belong to Japan.

"From the perspective of international law, the reality that the Tiaoyutai islands belong to the Republic of China's territory should not be doubted," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Katharine Chang (張小月) in response to media inquiries.

Following Chang's response, Interior Minister Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) said, "Sovereignty over the islands has been a source of controversy. But to the ROC government, the Tiaoyutai islands are part of Taiwan."

The eight uninhabited Tiaoyutai islands (known as the Senkaku islands in Japan) are located 220km northeast of Taiwan. They are claimed by China, Japan and Taiwan.

In 1968 a UN-sponsored survey concluded there were probably natural gas reserves under the waters surrounding the islets, but these remain untapped because of the territorial dispute.

In an interview with Japan's Okinawa Times published on Tuesday, Lee said, "The Tiaoyutai islands are Japanese territory, despite China's and Taiwan's claims."

According to Taiwan's official historical records, the islands have been listed as part of China's territory since 1402, during the Ming Dynasty. China, however, ceded the eight islands and Taiwan to Japan in 1895, after China's defeat in the first Sino-Japanese war.

Under the 1943 agreement between US president Franklin Roosevelt, British prime minister Winston Churchill and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo, Taiwan and the Tiaoyutai were officially returned to the ROC at the end of World War II in 1945.

But the US Air Force continued to use the islets for bombing practice until 1953, largely for its air force based in Japan's nearby Ryukyu islands. The US then bowed to Japanese pressure and recognized Japan's claim to the islets.

Taiwan currently lists them as under the jurisdiction of the county of Ilan.

Reacting to the efforts of Japanese citizens to erect Japanese flags and other symbols of sovereignty on the islands, the foreign ministry in 1996 drew up four guidelines on handling the matter.

These are: the islands' territories belong to the ROC; the matter has to be discussed with Japanese government peacefully; Taiwanese fishermen's interests in the sea around the islands are the government's priority; and cooperation with the People's Republic of China was not a consideration.

"From the perspectives of geographic, geological and historical connections, the Tiaoyutai islands are closely connected to Taiwan. We would never give up any inch of the islands' territories," a MOFA news release stated in 1996.

The PFP and the KMT, meanwhile, echoed the government's stance and argued that Lee's remark was inappropriate.

Hsu Ching-hsiung (許慶雄), a professor at Tamkang University, however, said that now was an inappropriate time for Taiwan to raise the issue.

"Fighting for sovereignty over the islands will just destroy the close relationship between Taiwan and Japan, which will backfire on Taiwan," Hsu said.