Tokyo summoned Beijing’s envoy yesterday after Chinese government ships entered Japanese territorial waters near islands at the center of a bitter row between the Asian giants.
The Chinese vessels entered the area early on Wednesday and left at about noon yesterday, the Japanese coastguard said, the longest incursion since the dispute erupted again last year.
Tokyo issued a protest to acting Chinese ambassador Han Zhiqiang (韓志強) over the latest incident, a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
“The Chinese side argued its ... position and said it could not accept Japan’s protest,” he said.
The incursion was the latest in a series by Chinese government ships in recent months around the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), known in Japan as the Senkakus and also claimed by Taiwan.
The East China Sea archipelago is located in rich fishing grounds and is believed to harbor vast natural resources below its seabed.
A group of four Chinese ships entered Japanese waters near the islands at about 7:30am on Wednesday, according to the Japan Coast Guard.
One of the four vessels left the area on Wednesday evening, but it was soon replaced by another government ship. The group left the area at about noon yesterday, the coast guard said.
The longest previous stay by Chinese vessels was about 14 hours in February, it added.
“The latest incident marks the longest stay” since last year, a coast guard official said.
The long-running dispute flared again after Japan nationalized some of the disputed chain in September last year, setting off a diplomatic row and sparking riots across China.
A Chinese boycott of Japanese brands quickly followed, weighing on exports to the key market.
The territorial tensions and maritime skirmishes have all but frozen relations.
A survey yesterday found that Chinese and Japanese hold the least favorable views of each others’ countries for almost a decade. A total of 92.8 percent of Japanese have a bad or relatively bad impression of China, while 90.1 percent of Chinese hold similar feelings toward Japan, the poll by the China Daily and Japanese think tank Genron NPO showed.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique