The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday that Taiwan is not a province of China and that China does not have maritime jurisdiction over Taiwan's territorial waters, which cover the Diaoyutai Islands.
Ministry spokeswoman Phoebe Yeh (葉非比) made the comments after her Chinese counterpart Qin Gang (秦剛) in Beijing protested over the illegal incursion of a Japanese patrol boat into Chinese territorial waters that resulted in a collision with a “China Taiwan” boat, which later sank.
“Saying the boat was from ‘China Taiwan’ could not be further from the truth. Taiwan is not a province of China and Taiwan’s territorial waters cover the Diaoyutais,” Yeh said.
PHOTO: AFP/JAPAN COAST GUARD VIA JIJI PRESS
The Diaoyutai islands, known as Senkaku in Japanese, are an island chain 222km north of Taiwan. They are claimed by Taiwan, China and Japan.
The two boats collided at 2:23am yesterday, 11km southwest of the Diaoyutais. The Taiwanese boat capsized approximately one hour after the accident, Yeh said.
The 13 fishermen and three crew members who were aboard the Taiwanese vessel that collided with the Japanese patrol boat Koshiki had been rescued, she said yesterday morning and were being treated at a hospital on Ishigaki Island, part of the Ryuku chain.
The 13 fishermen returned to Taiwan late yesterday.
However, the three crewmembers will remain in Ishigaki until Japanese authorities complete their investigation into the incident, a ministry press release said.
The press release also said the foreign ministry immediately asked the Taiwan representative office in Japan to reiterate Taiwan’s jurisdiction over the Diaoyutais.
The ministry also urged the office to resume a dialogue with the Japanese government on settling the dispute over the jurisdiction over the Diaoyutais and the surrounding seas.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man