Taiwan does not recognize any move by the Japanese government to nationalize the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) and has expressed concern over a visit to the area by Tokyo City Government personnel as part of the city’s efforts to buy the island chain, a Taiwanese official said yesterday.
“We do not recognize any move that will undermine our sovereignty,” said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Steve Hsia (夏季昌) said after it was reported that Japan is finalizing plans to nationalize the disputed island chain later this month.
Taiwan’s representative office in Japan has also expressed “concern” over an inspection visit to a marine area near the islands by a group of staff members from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government yesterday morning, which was linked to the city’s bid to purchase the Diaoyutais, Hsia said.
He reaffirmed Taiwan’s claim over the island chain, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan.
It was reported in the Japanese newspaper Nikkei Shimbun yesterday that the Japanese government is finalizing a plan to purchase three of the Senkaku islands from a private owner in the middle of this month for ￥2.05 billion (US$26.15 million).
“It is indisputable that we hold sovereignty over the Diaoyutais,” Hsia said in response.
He urged Japanese politicians to exercise restraint on the Diaoyutai issue.
Taiwan, Japan and China have been making competing claims to the Diaoyutai Islands for several years.
Located in the potentially resource-rich East China Sea, the island chain lies about 100 nautical miles (185km) off Taiwan’s northeastern tip.
Amid growing tensions in the region, Hsia reiterated that Taiwan will address the dispute with the relevant parties, on the basis of safeguarding sovereignty, shelving differences, pursuing peace and reciprocity, and jointly exploring resources in the area.
In a recent flare-up, a group of Hong Kong activists’ went ashore on the islands in the middle of last month and were detained by Japanese authorities. The activists were later released.
Following that incident, Japanese lawmakers led a group of activists on a visit to the Diaoyutais and some of them also went ashore.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS