Taiwan yesterday expressed grave concern over a trip by a group of Vietnamese tourists to the disputed Spratly Islands, saying the action would only fuel regional tensions.
"We have voiced our grave concern over the unilateral action of Vietnam and urged it not to take such steps to avert fueling tensions in the region," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Richard Shih (
Shih said Taiwan had previously expressed to Vietnam its concern over the southeast Asian nation's plan to organize sightseeing tours to the Spratlys.
Shih reasserted Taiwan's claim of sovereignty to the cluster of islands, claimed in whole or in part by Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Taiwan, which occupies the largest islet, Taiping, and which has a small garrisoned force there, erected on March 23 what Taipei called a "bird-watching" structure on a nearby coral reef, prompting a protest from Vietnam.
Shih's comments came as Vietnam sent a cruise ship carrying 100 people on an eight-day sightseeing trip to the Spratly Islands.
Tourists, Vietnamese journalists and travel agency representatives set out yesterday morning from Saigon Port, according to an official from Vietnam's National Administration of Tourism.
"There are no foreign tourists on this first experimental trip," said the official, who requested anonymity.
"After the trip we will see if it is feasible to invite foreign tourists," the official said.
The trip is being organized by Hai Thanh Travel Company, a state-run company.
Foreign journalists were not allowed to travel on the cruise to two islands of the disputed archipelago and the former prison colony of Con Dao Island, the official said.
The hundreds of islets that dot the sea between Vietnam and the Philippines are claimed in their entirety by Vietnam and China. Parts of the archipelago are also claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.
Busy shipping lanes, plentiful fishing grounds and suspected oil and mineral deposits have caused the countries to dispute the sovereignty of the islands and reefs.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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