The talks Taipei has had with Manila regarding the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28 incident and related issues were “a matter between the Republic of China (ROC) and the Philippines,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Anna Kao (高安) said yesterday. Kao said the ROC does not accept the “one China” policy being applied to talks conducted between the ROC and the Philippines because they “have nothing to do with ‘one China.’”
She made the remarks when asked about a statement the Chinese embassy in Manila made on Tuesday to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which the newspaper reported yesterday, that governments should defer to Beijing’s “one China” policy.
Kao said that the ministry was still looking into the authenticity of the statement.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer said the Chinese embassy made the statement when asked by the newspaper to comment on the start of Manila and Taipei’s fishery talks.
“The Chinese government has no objection to the non-governmental economic and cultural contacts between Taiwan and foreign countries that have diplomatic relations with China, but we oppose foreign countries and Taiwan having official exchanges or signing agreements with sovereign and official implications,” Chinese embassy spokesperson Zhang Hua (張華) said.
“We have always required and hoped that the countries that have established diplomatic relations with China abide by their commitments to adhere to the ‘one China’ policy,” Zhang said, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Officials from Taipei and Manila reached a consensus at a meeting last week on four points on dealing with fishing disputes in overlapping waters to prevent a repeat of the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28 incident in which Philippine Coast Guard personnel shot at the Taiwanese boat, killing fisherman Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成).
Included in the consensus was a pledge to refrain from the use of force or violence against fishermen from the other side when handling fishing disputes in overlapping waters and to continue discussions on signing a provisional arrangement on fishing rights in the area.
Both sides have decided to hold another meeting early next month on related issues.
‘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
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
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