An official from the Presidential Office said yesterday the government was upset by remarks early last month by the de facto Japanese ambassador on Taiwan’s status, but dismissed speculation that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has refused to see the Japanese envoy.
The official, who asked to remain anonymous, disputed a report by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (Taipei Times’ sister paper) yesterday that said Ma had refused to see Masaki Saito after the Japanese representative said that Taiwan’s status was “still unresolved.”
Saito made the comments at an annual meeting of the Republic of China (ROC) International Relations Association at National Chung Cheng University in Chiayi County. Saito’s remarks were made days after Ma declared that the 1952 Treaty of Taipei affirmed the transfer of Taiwan’s sovereignty from Japan to the ROC.
The Japanese representative later apologized for his remarks after Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) lodged a protest and demanded an explanation.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release announced that Hsia had met Saito, who said that it was his personal view that Taiwan’s status was unresolved and that his comment did not reflect the position of the Japanese government.
“[Ma and Saito] recently attended an event and had short exchanges,” the official said yesterday, dismissing the report, which said Ma was so furious that he planned to ask Tokyo to replace Saito.
“Although his remarks were indeed inappropriate and hurt the feelings of Taiwanese people, the president is not as angry as the media portrayed,” the official said. “The Presidential Office does everything with the country’s best interest in mind.”
The report said the government declined to describe Ma’s move as a “boycott” or a “reluctance to see” Saito, instead saying it was “inconvenient [for the two] to meet.”
No one knew exactly when Ma would be willing to see Saito, the report said.
The report also said Tokyo had no immediate intention to replace Saito and had recently given Taiwan’s representative to Japan, John Feng (馮寄台), the “cold shoulder” in retaliation.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus on May 4 urged the Executive Yuan to declare Saito persona non grata and ask Tokyo to recall him.
At a separate setting yesterday, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said he had no information on whether the KMT caucus was acting under instructions from the Presidential Office.
“Taiwan-Japan relations have been sound,” Wang said.
While the Ma administration was upset by Saito’s remarks, Taiwan independence supporters rallied in support of the Japanese representative to Taiwan, saying the Japanese government and Saito need not apologize because “they told the truth.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN AND STAFF WRITER
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
RSS