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New Party blasts government on Tiaoyutais

New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) said yesterday that his party will initiate a "public trial" by "all the people of Taiwan" next month should the administration fail to respond to controversy surrounding the sovereignty of the Tiaoyutai islands before that time.

Yok said at a press conference that the government has made no effort to protect the Republic of China's (ROC) sovereignty over the Tiaoyutais, while former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) has gone as far as to claim that the Tiaoyutais are part of Japanese territory.

Noting that Lee slammed Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) on Thursday for their planned visits to China and accused them of "colluding with China to sell Taiwan," Yok claimed that Lee was "colluding with Japan to sell Taiwan."

Arguing that the Tiaoyutais are part of the ROC's territory, Yok said that if the government continues to condone Lee's nonsense and makes no response to the controversy regarding the sovereignty of the Tiaoyutais, the New Party will initiate the "public trial" on May 15, to highlight the government's "collusion" with Japan over the issue.

New Party Legislator Joanna Lei (雷倩) said that the Chun Xiao oil and gas field -- China's southernmost offshore oil and gas field in the East China Sea, only 4km from the median line with Japanese territory and currently at the heart of an ongoing Chinese-Japanese dispute -- is located within the ROC's 370km economic zone and is also part of the Tiaoyutai reef area.

The government, however, has not uttered a word about Japan's recent sovereignty claims over the Chun Xiao oil and gas field, giving away mammoth interests equal to NT$8 million (US$254,000) for each of the nation's citizens for nothing, Lei said.

Lei claimed that the Tiaoyutai island group is part of ROC territory, saying that the Ilan County Government formally registered the uninhabited islands as territory under ROC jurisdiction last April in accordance with a Ministry of the Interior plan and priced the Tiaoyutai land at NT$100 per m2.

Since the Chun Xiao oil and gas field is located within the Tiaoyutai area and within the ROC's economic zone, the government should move to claim it and protect the nation's interests, Lei said.

The Tiaoyutais, which are located between Taiwan and Okinawa, are claimed by Taiwan, China and Japan.

China ceded the island group to Japan in 1895 at a time when Qing dynasty was in sharp decline and losing territory to aggressive foreign powers.

After World War II, the islands were put under US control, at which time the ROC government demanded their return.

In 1972, however, the US returned the islands to the Japanese government -- a decision that governments and patriotic groups on both sides of the Taiwan Strait continue to protest.

The Ilan County Land Administration Office incorporated the Tiaoyutai islets under the jurisdiction of the Toucheng Township Government in Ilan in February last year to signify the ROC's sovereignty claim.
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