A presidential aide yesterday reiterated that the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) and their surrounding waters are an inherent part of the territory of the Republic of China and that territorial disputes should be solved peacefully.
“Taiwan has been very clear: The Diaoyutais are an inherent part of the sovereign territory of the Republic of China,” Presidential Office Secretary-General Timothy Yang (楊進添) said at the opening of the Taiwan-US-Japan Trilateral Security Dialogue forum in Taipei.
Taiwan has consistently stated that the Diaoyutais issue should be addressed based on the principles of “safeguarding sovereignty, shelving disputes, pursuing peace and reciprocity, and promoting joint exploration and development,” he said.
Taiwan, Japan and China claim sovereignty over the Diaoyutais, known as the Senkakus in Japan.
In a follow-up panel session on the issue, Akihisa Nagashima, a member of Japan’s House of Representatives, disagreed, saying that the Senkakus are an inherent part of Japan based on historical facts and international law.
However, he added that Japan and Taiwan “share vital security interests” and common values such as democracy, and condemned China’s “unilateral” actions in the South China Sea and East China Sea, which he said have threatened regional stability.
“We have to restrain China’s behavior,” he said, adding that all parties in the region should “seek to solve problems by rule of law, not by control with forceful measures.”
Tensions around the Diaoyutai Islands have risen since the Japanese government purchased three of the island chain’s islets from private owners last year.
Since then, Chinese ships have been sailing into the disputed area, with Japan and China accusing each other of invading what they both see as their sovereign territory.
Former US representative Dan Burton commended the Taiwanese government for trying to resolve the fishing rights issue between Taiwan and Japan “in a very responsible way.”
“One of the things we really need to do in this world is, before we get into any real confrontation, is to sit down, talk and try to work out our differences,” he said.
Taiwan and Japan signed a fisheries agreement in April to resolve long-running disputes on fishing rights in their overlapping waters in the East China Sea.
UNDER INVESTIGATION: Huang’s body was found just outside the bathroom and showed no signs of a struggle, and no alcohol or drugs were found Singer and actor Alien Huang (黃鴻升) was found dead at his home in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) yesterday. He was 36. Huang was also known by the nickname Xiao Gui (“little ghost”). His body was found when his father went to check on him after being unable to reach him by telephone, and called emergency services to the house at 11am, the Taipei City Police Department said. Huang’s body, which was discovered just outside the bathroom, showed no signs of a physical struggle, and he appeared to have been dead for some time, police said, adding that no drugs or alcohol were
CONFIRMED IN PHILIPPINES: The CECC would conduct contact tracing for the migrant workers to determine if they had come into contact with elderly people or children Six Filipinos tested positive for COVID-19 upon returning home from Taiwan, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday as it reported a case of imported COVID-19 infection, bringing the number of confirmed cases in Taiwan to 500. Philippine authorities reported four of the cases through the National IHR Focal Point, while the other two were reported by the company that they had worked for in Taiwan. The six — five women and one man — are aged from their 20s to 40s, and worked as in-home care workers, domestic workers, factory workers and sailors in Taiwan, said Minister of Health and
TIME FOR CHANGE: Most of those at a public hearing organized by the DPP’s Chung Chia-pin also agreed that the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan should be abolished Taiwan needs a new constitution, as the current one was adopted in Nanjing in 1946, when the Republic of China (ROC) represented all of China, while the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan should be abolished, legal experts and academics said yesterday during a public hearing at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. Chang Kun-sheng (張錕盛), a law professor and secretary-general of the Taiwan Administrative Law Association, said that it is time to draft a new constitution. The ROC Constitution was adopted during a National Constituent Assembly meeting in Nanjing shortly after World War II and before the Chinese Civil War had fully erupted,
The COVID-19 pandemic might not have originated from a seafood market in Wuhan, China, National Taiwan University College of Public Health professor Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. While many countries are experiencing second waves of COVID-19 infections, many are also lifting lockdowns to revive their economies, allowing travelers to cross national borders, Chen said. Academics have been questioning whether genetic mutations in the novel coronavirus in different countries have made it more infectious, he added. Academics from different backgrounds have conducted phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences, he said, adding that the studies can help scientists understand how the virus spread among
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