Ma calls leasing of three Tiaoyutais premature

While a PFP lawmaker yesterday proposed to lease three of the five Tiaoyutai isles from the government to signify the ROC's sovereignty over the uninhabited island group, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, a long-standing defender of Taiwan's sovereignty over the islands, said now is not the time to settle the issue.

PFP lawmaker Kao Ming-jian (高明見) told a news conference yesterday that since the government has clearly declared sovereignty over the Tiaoyutais on numerous occasions, the five islets are Taiwan's national property and Taiwanese citizens can apply to lease them in accordance with existing national laws governing the leasing of real estate.

However Ma said yesterday now is not an opportune moment.

"Since Taiwan is not a representative nation at the UN, it wouldn't be advantageous for us to take the dispute to international arbitration or appeal to the international court," Ma said.

But he stressed the necessity to "keep the issue alive" through diplomacy, so that Japan will not silently "annex the sovereignty of the isles," Ma said.

Ma affirmed his support for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' diplomatic approach to the dispute.

"No matter whether Taiwan is to unite with China or is to seek independence the Tiaoyutai isles belong to Taiwan," Ma said.

Kao had said his plan was prompted by a newspaper report that the Japanese government had acquired a lease from a private owner of three of the five Tiaoyutai islets -- whose Japanese names are Uotsuri jima, Minami kojima, and Kita kojima -- to strengthen its "stable territorial control."

He added that he hoped other citizens would join forces to lease the two remaining isles -- Taisho jima and Kyuba jima.

He said once private Taiwan citizens obtain a lease from their government, they will prevent Japan from making illegal landings on the Tiaoyutais or erecting structures on them. The islands are 189km north of Taiwan.

Kao's plan would be obstructed by the fact that the government has not registered the land as national property.

Lin Shen-ching (林深靖), an aide to Kao, yesterday told the Taipei Times that the National Property Bureau under the Ministry of Finance admitted the bureau holds no record of the land registration of the Tiaoyutai islands as the Ministry of the Interior has never carried out the land measurement.

"The bureau has no record of the islands because the ministry has never conducted the land registration so as to make public announcement of the islands' ownership," Lin said.

"Without these basic ID records of the islands, we can't make further efforts to lease the islands," said Lin.

The Yomiuri Shimbun, the largest daily in Japan, reported Wednesday that the Japanese government has obtained a lease on three Tiaoyutai isles from Yukihiro Kurihara, an Okinawa resident, for Japanese Yen 22.56 million (US$183,000) a year.

The lease is the first of its kind that the Japanese government has signed with a private landowner, which is being interpreted as an attempt to strengthen its hand in claiming territorial sovereignty over the Tiaoyutais.

Taiwan's government has expressed concerns about the Yomiuri Shimbun report in the past few days.