The government yesterday urged Japan to deal cautiously with acts by its politicians on the sovereignty of the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, to avoid damage to bilateral relations.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman James Chang (章計平) made the remarks in response to a plan outlined by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara on Monday to purchase three islets that are part of the Diaoyutai chain.
Ishihara, who made the comments during a visit to the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has been negotiating with the private Japanese owners of the islands and it was close to reaching an agreement to buy them.
“Would anyone have a problem with an act by the Japanese to protect our own land?” Ishihara was quoted as saying.
“Tokyo has decided to buy them. Tokyo is going to protect the Senkaku Islands,” he said.
Ishihara said the purchase was aimed at preventing China from taking “effective control” of the islands out of Japan’s hands, according to media reports.
He said he had begun negotiations to purchase Uotsurijima, Kitakojima and Minamikojima in the uninhabited island chain, which is owned by a Japanese family and leased to the Japanese government.
The islands are owned by a family named Kurihara who bought them decades ago from descendants of the previous Japanese owners.
The online edition of the conservative Sankei Shimbun reported that the owners had agreed to sell to the Tokyo government.
Ishihara will hold hearings with experts and seek the agreement of the local legislature in his bid to buy the islands when the Japanese government’s annually renewable leases expires at the end of March, the Sankei said.
He did not discuss the expected cost of the islands in Washington, saying only they would be “not too expensive.”
In Taipei, Chang said that the ministry did not recognize any remarks made by Japanese politicians regarding the sovereignty of the Diaoyutais.
“We call on the Japanese government to handle the comments cautiously. We do not want to see any kind of actions taken unilaterally because they would damage our cordial relationship with Japan,” Chang said.
The Republic of China has long maintained that it holds sovereignty over the Diaoyutais, but that all claimants should set aside sovereignty disputes and instead jointly develop the region to the benefit all parties, Chang said.
“We urge all parties involved to tackle the issue in a peaceful, rational way,” he said.
If realized, Ishihara’s move would mark a new stage in the long-rumbling territorial dispute over the islands, which sit in rich fishing grounds that may harbor lucrative energy resources.
China also lays claim to the islands and relations between Tokyo and Beijing plunged in September 2010 when Japan’s coast guard detained a Chinese fishing boat captain who rammed a patrol boat near the islands.
China cut off exports of rare earth minerals and halted political and cultural exchanges, forcing Japan into what was widely seen as a humiliating climbdown.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying