Over 100 policemen were mobilized to guard the Taipei office of Japan's Interchange Association yesterday for fear that several hundred fishermen from eastern Taiwan would swamp the de facto Japanese embassy to protest a fishing dispute over territorial waters between the two countries.
To the police and Japanese liaison officials' relief, the fishermen did not show up, except for about a dozen activists led by Hsiao Wen-yi (蕭文義), chairman of the Taiwan Fishermen's Human Rights Association.
Many journalists, including reporters and cameramen from Japan, seemed to be disappointed with the absence of protesters, who were found later to have gone to the Legislative Yuan to lodge their protest.
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Mark Chen (
A preparatory meeting is scheduled to be held in Tokyo today to pave the way for the 15th round of Taiwan-Japan fishery talks slated for July 29, also in Tokyo.
Fisheries Administration officials said that the government will continue to exchange views with the fishermen, adding that any Taiwan-Japan fishing disputes should be tackled diplomatically.
Chen, who is currently on a visit in the West African country of Burkina Faso to cement diplomatic ties, said that he does not think the fishing rights issue would be a bone of contention between Taiwan and Japan.
For international talks, Chen said, "you have to `give and take' to secure the best possible results, and radical words or moves aren't helpful either before or after."
Chen was referring to the latest news reports from Taiwan that a Coast Guard Administration patrol boat, in an action to protect Taiwan fishing boats, confronted two Japanese patrol boats for eight hours on Saturday in waters near the Diaoyutais, which are claimed by both Taiwan and Japan.
Chen called for a consensus to be reached within the country before the Taiwan-Japan fishery talks.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching