Taiwan should not be overly close to China, so as to maintain the balance of power in the East Asia region, Japanese Diet members were quoted as saying during a recent meeting with visiting Taiwanese lawmakers on issues pertaining to the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台列嶼).
Taiwan, China and Japan all claim sovereignty over the islets, known in Japan as the Senkaku islands and by China as the Diaoyu Islands (釣魚群島).
Members of the Chunghua Baodiao Alliance, under the escort of Coast Guard Administration (CGA), on July 4 set sail for the Diaoyutais to emphasize Taiwan’s claims of sovereignty over the archipelago.
The trip proved controversial as the alliance members brought with them the national flag of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) instead of that of the Republic of China (ROC).
At the time of the incident, Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers Pasuya Yao (姚文智), Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如), Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) and others were on a visit in Japan.
Huang said yesterday after returning to Taiwan that in a luncheon with Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party representatives Yoshitaka Shindo and Hakubun Shimomura along with Democratic Party of Japan representative Shozo Azuma — all of whom are considered heavyweights within their respective parties — both sides exchanged opinions on the development of Taiwan-Japan relationships, as well as the political situation in Japan.
Due to the conflict with the Japan Coast Guard on the Diaoyutais issue on that same day, Shindo broached the subject, stating that the archipelago was Japanese sovereign territory, but both Taiwan and Japan could discuss fishing rights and joint resource development in the area, Huang said. She added that Shindo’s remarks met with the approval of the other two Japanese representatives.
Yao responded by reaffirming Taiwan’s claims of sovereignty over the archipelago, adding that although there was currently some dispute over the issue, because Japan had once colonized Taiwan and, geographically, the archipelago had belonged to Taiwan at one time, the Japanese government should “cede” the sovereignty of the territory to Taiwan.
Huang added she spoke on the sovereignty issue of the archipelago, stating that both Taiwan and Japan recognized that the archipelago did not belong to the PRC and that the two countries should jointly develop the economic zone around the archipelago.
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
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
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying