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DPP lawmaker quizzes Wu over marine development

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) questioned Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday about the government’s plans to cooperate with China in developing the waters around Diaoyutai (釣魚台) and Taiping Island (太平島), the biggest islet in the Spratly Islands.

Fielding questions from Wong during a legislative question-and-answer session, Wu failed to give clear answers, saying only that the government wanted to tap the resources in the waters around the islands with other countries.

“Is the government going to cooperate with China to counter Japan and Philippines?” Wong asked. “As the sovereignty over the waters is in dispute, the plan could start wars.”

He “had not heard of a concrete plan, but we cannot let go of these waters too easily and that was the government’s direction,” Wu said.

“There are abundant mineral resources in the waters around the Diaoyutai, over which we have sovereignty. But Japan disagrees with this … We hoped we could set aside disputes about these waters and maybe it would be possible to jointly tap into the resources,” Wu said.

Wong said afterwards that she did not have more information on the issue, but she thought that Wu had tried to avoid answering questions of great concern to the nation’s safety and sovereignty.

During her questioning, Wong also said that researchers who joined a team organized by the National Science Council for a marine surveys project had shared their results with China’s State Council after being told to do so by National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi (蘇起).

Wong said information about marine meteorology, continental shelf, ocean temperatures and marine biology were given to China and China had registered the information with the UN.

“This caused very serious damage to the country’s sovereignty. It not only meant that the UN recognized Taiwan as part of China’s territory, but also helped China enhance its marine strength,” Wong said.

Wu said he was not aware of the issue and promised to look into it.

In other news, Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) told DPP Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) yesterday that the government’s plan to decriminalize prostitution in red-light districts would not be off limits to married men.

Jiang said that allowing married men to seek prostitutes was contrary to the Criminal Code, which considers such an act to be adultery.

“We are also considering the possibility of decriminalizing adultery,” Jiang said.


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