Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) will leave for Japan today on a three-day trip to reassure Japan that Taiwan does not favor relations with Beijing over Tokyo. Chiang, a vice chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), will lead a six-member KMT delegation.
The group is expected to meet with Taro Aso, secretary-general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and other top political and parliamentary figures to update them on the KMT administration’s stance on relations with Japan and China.
Chiang will represent President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in clarifying Taiwan’s firm stance on maintaining friendly ties with Japan, said KMT Legislator Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進), one of the four KMT lawmakers who will be accompanying Chiang.
PHOTO: CNA
The other members are KMT legislators Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞), Lee Fu-hsing (李復興) and Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), and Tsai Ming-yao (蔡明耀), head of the Committee on Japanese Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lee Chia-chin said.
It will be the second Taiwanese delegation to visit Japan within a month.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) returned home on Aug. 13 after reassuring Japanese officials that Taiwan’s diplomatic relations are not tilting toward China.
During their visit to Tokyo, Chiang and his group will also discuss fishing rights and the possibility of the countries signing a free trade agreement, Lee Chia-chin said.
The delegation is also expected to meet with several other key Japanese politicians, including former prime minister Shinzo Abe; Nobuo Kishi, an LDP member in the upper house of the Diet and Takeo Hiranuma, president of the Japan-ROC Dietmen’s Council.
Chiang, who studied in Japan, is scheduled to deliver a speech in Japanese on cross-strait relations and Taiwan’s economic prospects in Tokyo tomorrow, Lee Chia-chin said.
The delegation’s trip was at the invitation of the Japan Interchange Association, which is the quasi-official organization handling relations with Taiwan in the absence of official ties.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
RSS