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PRC slams Japan’s envoy to Taiwan over ‘status’

Activists chant slogans during a protest in front of the Japan Interchange Association, Japan’s de facto embassy, in Taipei on Monday. PHOTO: PICHI CHUANG, REUTERS

China has complained to Japan about comments by a top Japanese diplomat that Taiwan’s political status was up in the air, the Chinese foreign ministry said yesterday, testing ties still scarred by World War II.

Taiwanese activists protested at the de facto Japanese embassy in Taipei on Monday, three days after top Japanese envoy Saito Masaki told a university forum that Taiwan’s status had “not been determined,” angering the Taiwanese government.

“We express our strong dissatisfaction [with the comments],” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) said in a statement on its Web site. “The Chinese government has already made solemn representations with the Japanese side.”

Japan recognizes China over Taiwan and thus cannot have an official embassy in Taiwan.

Saito said he was stating only personal views and the de facto embassy said it took no official position on Taiwan’s “legal status.”

Chinese spokesman Ma repeated Beijing’s official position that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.

“Any scheme to try to create discussion on Taiwan’s status is a provocation of China’s core interests and cannot be accepted by the Chinese government or its people,” he said.

Ties between China and Japan are often testy because of Beijing’s insistence that Tokyo has never properly atoned for its brutal occupation of large parts of China during World War II.

Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday restated his position that the Treaty of Taipei of 1952 affirmed the transfer of Taiwan’s sovereignty to the Republic of China (ROC).

With Saito absent, Ma told Japanese parliamentarian Mitsuhide Iwaki that his visit came at an appropriate time because his administration had just celebrated the 57th anniversary of the signing of the treaty.

Japan and the ROC signed the accord at the Taipei Guest House on April 28, 1952. The Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty, better known as the Treaty of Taipei, affirms the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty and states that the Japanese government renounces any claim to Taiwan, Penghu, the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands.

It did not, however, specify the legal successor government of the territories.

During the unveiling ceremony in Taipei last week of a sculpture depicting Japanese and ROC representatives signing the treaty, Ma said that the treaty affirmed the transfer of Taiwan’s sovereignty from Japan to the ROC.

On Friday, Saito told a meeting at National Chung Cheng University that Taiwan’s status remained “unresolved.”

Saito later apologized for his remarks after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs lodged a protest and demanded an explanation.

KMT lawmakers also wanted to make Saito persona non grata and have him replaced. Pro-unification groups condemned him, demanding he leave the country and that Tokyo apologize.

Ma said the 1952 pact was significant because it asserted the ROC’s claim over Taiwan, which was returned to the ROC in 1945.

Tokyo and Taipei have a sound relationship, Ma said. Although Japan and the ROC severed ties 20 years after the treaty was signed, Ma said he designated this year as “the year of advancing the special partnership between Taiwan and Japan” with the hope of furthering bilateral ties.

Among many achievements, Ma said Japan had given the green light for a Taiwanese representative office in Sapporo to offer assistance to Taiwanese visitors.
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