A former Japanese foreign ministry official who quit last month after his government prevented him from visiting Taiwan said yesterday his country should establish official ties with Taiwan.
"Judging from the close cultural, economic and trade interactions between these two nations, it is unnatural and unreasonable for Japan's foreign policy to neglect Taiwan's existence," Kenichi Mizuno (水野賢一), a member of the Japanese Diet, said at a seminar on Taiwan-Japan relations.
The seminar was hosted by Taiwan's Taiwan-Japan Forum in the 21st Century (21
Mizuno, of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said that while formal China-Japan relations were important to Japan, such relations should not be built at Taiwan's expense.
"I personally think that Japan should seriously consider establishing formal ties with Taiwan, for both countries shares common values in democracy and freedom, values that China lacks," he said.
Conceding that such a proposition would be strongly opposed by China, Mizuno said that Japan should stand firm and not yield to pressure from Beijing.
"Japan should not fear raising tensions between Japan and China and curtail its decisions based on presumptions about China's reaction," he said.
Mizuno recently stirred an uproar in Japan when he resigned late last month as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a post he had held since January, to protest Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi's rejection of his request to pay an official visit to Taiwan.
No high-level foreign ministry official or even parliamentary secretary has paid an official visit to Taiwan since 1972, when Japan and Taiwan ended official diplomatic ties.
Other than cultural and trade exchanges, frequent interaction should also be promoted between Japanese and Taiwanese government officials, for Taiwan is an important partner of Japan, a reality that cannot be denied, Mizuno said.
DPP legislative whip Wang Tuoh (
The possibility of Taiwan signing a free-trade agreement with Japan was also discussed at the seminar yesterday.
While the DPP late last month vowed to push for such an agreement within two years, Japanese Diet member Isao Matsumiya, however, said that it would be difficult to stick to the timetable as a consensus had not been reached between the two countries.
Matsumiya also said Japan was waiting to see how China's overtures to ASEAN developed before exploring a free-trade deal with Taiwan.
Aside from Mizuno and Matsumiya, Diet member Shoichi Nakagawa also took part in the seminar as well as several Taiwanese legislators, including Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) of the DPP, Chen Horng-chi (陳鴻基) and Shyu Jong-shyong (徐中雄) of the KMT and Wu Tung-sheng (吳東昇) of the TSU.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS