More than 300 protesters gathered in front of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday to urge the US to recognize Taiwan as an incorporated territory and assume full authority for its “military occupation.”
Waving a self-designed US Military Government flag — the shape of Taiwan superimposed on a US flag — the protesters, led by attorney Roger Lin (林志昇), chanted anti-government slogans and called for the expulsion of the Republic of China (ROC) “government-in-exile.”
In December 2006, Lin and a group of expatriates sued the US government, arguing that although Japan relinquished its claim over Taiwan after World War II, it did not hand it to China.
PHOTO: CNA
Since the US took occupied Japan and its overseas territories following victory in the war, the US was responsible for the final disposition of these areas, including Taiwan, the group said.
Lin said yesterday that according to the US State Department’s definition of terrorist groups, the ROC military establishment shares many traits with al-Qaeda.
Lin presented information in a manila envelope to AIT press officer Christopher Kavanagh and asked him to relay it to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Lin said if Clinton failed to respond to his plea, he would provide the information to major international media outlets.
The protesters were met by police who guard the AIT compound.
The crowd dispersed peacefully after Lin’s brief meeting with Kavanagh.
In Lin’s court case in the US, he said the San Francisco Treaty, which marked Japan’s surrender of Taiwan, did not say who should assume control of Taiwan and thus that it remains under the jurisdiction of the US. He said Taiwanese are entitled to be nationals, although not voting citizens, of the US, with US passports.
In April, the US Court of Appeal in Washington ruled in favor of the US government in an appeal of a district court ruling.
“Addressing [the] Appellants’ claims would require identification of Taiwan’s sovereign. The Executive Branch has deliberately remained silent on this issue and we cannot intrude on its decision,” the judges said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
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