The legislature’s Internal Administration Committee’s plan to inspect the contested Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) on Nov. 4 has been temporarily called off, with bad weather conditions cited as the primary concern.
According to the committee chairperson, Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU) Legislator May Chin (高金素梅), the decision was made at the suggestion of the coast guard after the recent inclement weather. She added that another consideration was the government’s current focus on disaster relief work following the destruction of sections of the Suhua Highway during Typhoon Megi.
A new date would be set once the relief effort has been completed, she said.
Although the weather was given as the reason for postponing the inspection tour, sources suggested that the real reason was that the pan-blue camp has mobilized every hand to avert a possible crisis ahead of the upcoming special municipality elections, especially because the consequences of the tour are unpredictable. Another reason was the fact that former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe is visiting Taiwan today, the sources said.
The committee on Oct. 21 said it would make an inspection tour of the islands before reviewing the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) budget for next year. Chin said at the time that the committee members would cross the temporary demarcation line and maybe even land on one of the islands.
While Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said he respected the committee’s decision after learning of the committee’s plan, sources said that top officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) were “scared half to death” as such action could directly jeopardize relations between Taiwan and Japan.
Sources said that after the committee announced its decision, the Japanese government contacted Taiwan’s Association of East Asian Relations (AEAR) several times via Japan’s Interchange Association to request that the AEAR relay the Japanese government’s concerns to the Taiwanese government.
MOFA is feeling extra pressure because Abe is in Taiwan this week visiting as a member of the Japan-ROC Diet Members’ Consultative Council, better known as the Nikkakon, together with a dozen other Diet members.
Because the planned inspection by the committee was an official inspection tour arranged by the legislature — with requests for assistance from the coast guard, MOFA and the Ministry of the Interior — the Executive Yuan found it difficult to refuse the committee, the sources said, adding that top officials in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the government regarded the planned inspection tour as “a big deal.”
The KMT’s legislative caucus held a meeting on Monday where it was decided that the committee’s inspection tour would have to be handled with the utmost care in the run up to next month’s special municipality elections to avoid any unnecessary conflict or clashes, sources said.
Sources added that on Wednesday evening, the secretary-general of the KMT’s legislative caucus, Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏), met over dinner with Chin and NPSU Legislator Lin Pin-kuan (林炳坤), who is -taking over as committee chair from Chin this week. Cabinet Secretary-General Lin Join-sane (林中森) also took part in the meeting to discuss the matter.
KMT Policy Committee Director Lin Yi-shih (林益世) brought along several members of the KMT’s legislative caucus, as well as the deputy director of the Policy Committee, to give the NPSU a healthy amount of face, sources said.
According to sources, Chin was at first very insistent that the inspection tour go ahead as planned, and it was only after the other attendants came up with the bad weather excuse that she gave in.
When Chin sent out the committee agenda for this week on Friday evening, the entry for the inspection tour originally planned for Thursday this week was changed to a report by Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Sun Ta--chuan (孫大川), to be followed by an interpellation session.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS