The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that the Diaoyutai (釣魚台) islands are an inseparable part of the Republic of China’s (ROC) territory and that any different views expressed by former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) were his personal opinion.
Lee, who is visiting Okinawa, was quoted by the Central News Agency yesterday as saying at a luncheon hosted by the Okinawa county magistrate yesterday that “The Diaoyutai islands have belonged to Japan since a long time ago.”
Like Taiwan, the island group was part of Japanese territory during its occupation from 1895 until 1945, he said.
Lee has been criticized in the past for making similar comments.
Following a swearing-in ceremony yesterday for ministry officials, including John Feng (馮寄台), the nation’s new representative to Japan, who will be leaving on Saturday to take up his post, Minister of Foreign Affairs Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) told reporters that the Diaoyutai islands are under the jurisdiction of the ROC government and that Lee’s views did not dovetail with those of the administration.
Feng said the dispute over the islands was a prolonged issue and should be resolved through diplomatic means.
“We acknowledge that Japan believes the Diaoyutai islands are part of its territory, but this can only be resolved diplomatically,” he said.
Controversy over the sovereignty of the island group was re-ignited this year when a Taiwanese fishing boat sank after colliding with a Japanese patrol vessel on June 10 near the islands, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japanese. Taiwan, Japan and China all claim rights over the islands.
Taiwan and Japan held a 15th round of fishery talks in July 2005 to try to resolve the dispute. While both sides agreed to hold another round of talks in March 2006, they never took place.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS