Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Wednesday his nation is not willing to compromise in a territorial dispute over islands that have spawned violent anti-Japan protests, drawing strong responses from Beijing and Taipei, who both claim sovereignty over the islands.
Noda was speaking at a news conference after telling the UN General Assembly that issues should be resolved peacefully, according to rule of law and not through force.
Senior Chinese and Japanese diplomats met in New York and Beijing on Tuesday, seeking to mend ties frayed by the spat over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), called the Senakakus by Japan, that has raised tensions between them to their highest level in years.
The islands, held by Japan, are uninhabited, but sit astride rich fishing waters and potentially large reserves of natural gas.
“So far as the Senkaku islands are concerned, they are the inherent part of our territory, in light of history and international law. It’s very clear,” Noda said. “There are no territorial issues as such, therefore there could not be any compromise that may mean any setback from this basic position.”
He added that in the case of the Senkakus as well as that of separate islands that are the subject of a spat between Japan and fellow US ally South Korea, Japan would “maintain reason and try to resolve the issue calmly.”
Noda defended his government’s purchase of some of the islands from a private Japanese citizen two weeks ago as an attempt to ensure their “stable management,” but conceded “it seems that China has yet to understand that.”
He said violence in the protests — that have targeted Japanese-owned stores and factories in China — could not be condoned in any circumstances and that Japan had demanded China protect Japanese citizens and property.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) responded to Noda’s comments by saying they ignored historical casts and international laws.
“The country concerned must face up to history and earnestly abide by international legal principles, and cease all actions that infringe the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other countries,” he said in a statement issued yesterday.
“China is extremely dissatisfied with and sternly opposes the Japanese leader’s obstinate persistence in his incorrect views regarding the Diaoyu islands,” the statement added.
Xinhua news agency reported that Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪) told his Japanese counterpart, Koichiro Gemba, in New York on Tuesday that the Japanese government’s island purchase constituted “a serious challenge to the post-war international order.”
Taiwan has also weighed in on the intensifying dispute.
On Tuesday, Japanese and Taiwanese coast guard cutters exchanged water cannon blasts just off the islands.
Taiwan once again called on Japan to recognize the existence of the territorial dispute over the Diaoyutais, a Taiwanese Foreign Ministry official said yesterday in response to Japan’s rejection of the controversy over the island group.
“If Japan does not recognize the dispute, the issue will not be resolved,” Taiwanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Steve Hsia (夏季昌) said.
Hsia’s remarks came following reports of Noda’s remarks at the news conference in New York on Wednesday that the islands were inherently Japan’s territory.
Hsia reiterated that the islands are the Republic of China’s territory and that Taiwan will not accept any claims that undermine its sovereignty over the island chain.
He also called on all parties concerned to address the issue in a peaceful and rational manner.
Despite the flurry of diplomacy, it is far from clear that the crisis has passed. China could send more vessels to challenge Japanese control of the islands, raising the possibility of armed conflict arising from a mistake or miscalculation.
Additional reporting by CNA
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has