Questioned by legislators at an Internal Administration Committee meeting yesterday, Jiang said the government would never give up Kinmen and Matsu and would soon declare the islands Taiwan’s marine territories.
“We have never changed our stance on Kinmen and Matsu — whether in terms of sovereignty or de facto jurisdiction [over the islands],” Jiang told the committee. “It didn’t when we declared our marine territories 10 years ago … when another party was in power.”
“There is no doubt that Kinmen and Matsu are under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China. We will continue the project of measuring coastlines on the basis of marine territorial claim,” Jiang said. “Results from the second phase of the project will be announced in a year.”
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) urged the Executive Yuan to rectify the nation’s boundaries.
“Aren’t we going to hold county chiefs elections for Kinmen and Matsu [next month]? How come [the government] did not include them within our territory? This is a very serious mistake and could result in serious problems afterwards,” Lee said.
KMT Legislator Shuai Hua-ming (帥化民) said the government should stipulate the inclusion of Kinmen and Matsu in the nation’s territory in a written document.
The DPP said that leaving the coastline around Matsu and Kinmen out of the country’s official territorial documents set a dangerous precedent that would enable China to claim Taiwan as part of its territory.
“The government claimed that this was part of Taiwan’s effort to shelve differences in order to improve cross-strait ties. The problem is, Taiwan’s unilateral action to exclude Kinmen and Matsu’s territorial waters will only ignite further conflict between the two sides,” said DPP Lawmaker Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津), panning the administration for being China-centric while disregarding the livelihood of the Taiwanese, particularly those residing on the offshore islets.
DPP Kaoshiung City Councilor Chao Tian-lin (趙天麟) said that Taiwan and Japan have had a longstanding feud over the Diaoyutais, but that difference of opinion had never deterred Taiwan from including the disputed island chain as part of ROC territory.
“If we are serious about shelving differences with all of our neighbors, then why not also abdicate our claims for the Diaoyutais or Spratly Islands?” Chao said.
Chao added that during the DPP era, the government launched several unofficial negotiations with Beijing on the direct cross-strait flight issue, but that none of the talks came to fruition because Taiwan insisted flights must be routed either closer to Japan or the Philippines to make them appear international rather than domestic.
Chao said the KMT caved in to Chinese pressure after it came to power because it was too eager to start cross-strait direct flights, adding that the gesture, as well as leaving the territorial waters around Kinmen and Matsu out of official documents, could all become Beijing’s “evidence” to show the international community that Taiwan has agreed that it is part of China.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU AND FLORA WANG
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