Taipei expects to hear from Manila by midnight today on four demands it made after a Taiwanese fisherman was shot dead by Philippine Coast Guard personnel last week.
Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) told lawmakers yesterday that Philippine Representative to Taiwan Antonio Basilio has assured him that Malacanang Palace will have a formal response to the demands before the 72-hour ultimatum, issued on Saturday, expires.
Lin said Basilio promised him on Sunday night that “he would make the utmost efforts” to find a solution to the situation when he returned to his country.
According to a Central News Agency report from Manila, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III presided over a confidential meeting to discuss issues, including the incident, which Basilio attended.
Philippine coast Guard personnel on board a maritime surveillance vessel on Thursday last week attacked a Taiwanese fishing boat, the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28, killing Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成) and leaving the boat riddled with bullets.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Saturday demanded the Philippines apologize, compensate Hung’s family, investigate the incident and punish the perpetrators, as well as begin talks over a fisheries agreement as soon as possible.
Ma has threatened to freeze Philippine migrant workers’ applications, recall Taiwan’s representative to the Philippines and expel Basilio if Manila fails to answer the demands in a positive manner.
“We will immediately impose the sanctions if we find the response from [Manila] to be unacceptable,” Lin said when questioned by lawmakers at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
Lin dismissed lawmakers’ concerns that Basilio might not return to Taiwan if Manila rejected the demands, saying “It’s unlikely.”
Late last night, ministry spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) said the ministry had learned that Basilio is scheduled to return to Taipei today.
In response to doubts expressed by lawmakers about the effectiveness of the threatened sanctions in getting the Philippines to agree to the demands, Lin said that they were solemn and serious requests that the Philippines had to respond to.
“We do not rule out additional sanctions,” Lin said, but ruled out the possibility of armed conflict.
Asked by lawmakers about the possibility of cooperation between Taiwan and China in protecting fishing boats in the disputed waters, Lin rejected the idea.
Lin said he “didn’t see this happening” because the Philippines has been intimidated by Beijing into upholding the “one China” principle and not talking with Taiwan about a fisheries agreement to settle disputes.
“The mainland [China] did not help us [in this regard],” Lin said.
At a separate setting, Benjamin Ho (何登煌), director-general of the ministry’s Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the government informed the US Department of State of the ultimatum before it was delivered.
On Sunday, Philippine Presidential Office deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte issued a statement expressing heartfelt sorrow over Hung’s death and extended sympathies and condolences to his family.
Valte said the Philippine government would conduct an “impartial, transparent and expeditious” investigation into the tragedy.
She said that the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28 was “one of the fishing vessels reportedly poaching in the area” and that the maritime control surveillance was carrying out its duty to combat illegal fishing within the maritime jurisdiction of the Philippines.
Presidential Office spokesperson Lee Chia-fei (李佳霏) on Sunday called the statement “flippant” and said it was insincere.
Meanwhile, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said that as long as the situation remained unresolved, the city would suspend all exchanges with the Philippines.
Aquino yesterday said the country’s representative office in Taipei would be the lead agency in charge of the issue, in accordance with Manila’s “one China” policy.
“I asked the secretary of foreign affairs to monitor, but the lead person has to be MECO [the Manila Economic and Cultural Office] because of the ‘one China’ policy,” GMA News reported him as saying.
Additional reporting by staff writer
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
US-CHINA SUMMIT: MOFA welcomed US reassurance of no change in its Taiwan policy; Trump said he did not comment when Xi talked of opposing independence US President Donald Trump yesterday said he has not made a decision on whether to move forward with a major arms package for Taiwan after hearing concerns about it from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Trump’s comments on Taiwan came as he flew back to Washington after wrapping up critical talks in which both leaders said important progress was made in stabilizing US-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran and Taiwan. “I will make a determination,” Trump said, adding: “I’ll be making decisions. But, you know, I think the last thing we need right
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
RSS