Both Beijing and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration have disgraced themselves as their denouncements of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) indicate their “outdated ways of thinking,” former representative to Japan Koh Se-kai (許世楷) said yesterday.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Taiwan Affairs Office on Friday made hard-hitting comments about Lee’s visit to Japan, on the heels of Presidential Office spokesperson Charles Chen’s (陳以信) statement earlier that day that Lee had “humiliated” the nation and “forfeited its sovereignty” when he said that the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), known as the Senkakus in Japan, belong solely to Japan. The islands are claimed by Taiwan, China and Japan.
Lee reiterated his position on the issue when answering questions at a meeting at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo on Thursday.
In a press release, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang (陸慷) called Lee a “stubborn Taiwan splittist” and condemned Tokyo for assisting his visit and becoming involved in Taiwan separatist activities despite the objections of Beijing.
Saying that the Taiwan issue concerns China’s “core interests,” Lu urged Japan to stick to the “one China” policy and abide by the political principles stated in their bilateral political documents, including the Japan-China Joint Communique of 1972, to “refrain from creating a new political barrier for the two countries.”
Late on Friday night, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said China opposes any country providing a political platform for Taiwan separatist activities.
Ma Xiaoguang echoed Chen’s condemnation of Lee over the issue of the Diaoyutai Islands while also joining the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and the party’s spokesperson Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) in castigating Lee for his remarks that “glamorized Japan’s colonial rule in Taiwan.”
Lee’s “despicable” behavior shows that forces advocating Taiwan independence have caused “extreme harm” to peaceful development of cross-strait relations and to the interests of zhonghua minzu (中華民族, people of Chinese ethnicity), which will surely be “spat on by compatriots from both sides,” Ma Xiaoguang said.
Koh, who was the nation’s representative to Japan from 2004 to 2008 under the Democratic Progressive Party administration, yesterday said that Beijing has “overreacted” to Lee’s visit.
“Former president Lee has been out of office for more than 15 years. As an ordinary citizen, he should not be subject to any limits on overseas visits. China is such a big country. How could it be so small-minded?” Koh said.
The way Ma’s administration, the KMT and Beijing reacted to Lee’s visit, during which he advocated the values of democracy, mutual respect and the rule of law, was a manifestation of their lack of understanding of values that have been universally embraced in the modern era, Koh said.
Koh said the development of human rights has long arrived at a point where people have the right to decide their own place in the international order, while the KMT and the Chinese regimes still adhere to a kind of nationalism that dates back to the eighteen century.
“Zhonghua minzu has never existed at all,” Koh said. “It is the right of the people in Taiwan, Xinjiang and Tibet to decide their destinies irrespective of a concept created by China aimed at enforcing its territorial and political borders.”
As the US has actively sought to become a stronger presence in Asia and with its alliance with Japan being the cornerstone of its policy in the region, mainly in response to China’s growing assertiveness, what Lee has proposed in Tokyo would greatly benefit Taiwan, Koh said.
“Taiwan has to ally itself with the US and Japan to reject China’s planned annexation,” he said.
When asked to comment specifically on Beijing’s denouncement of the former president, the Mainland Affairs Council avoided a direct response, saying only that the Republic of China’s (ROC) claim over the Diaoyutai Islands should be respected by all parties so the dignity of the nation can be upheld.
Separately yesterday, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said he disapproved of the assertion of Lee that the Diaoyutai Islands are rightfully Japan’s.
The Diaoyutais and all the islands in the South China Sea are integral territory of the ROC, Chu said.
“I would never concur with the view that the Diaoyutai Islands and South China Sea islands do not belong to the ROC no matter who is behind the contention,” Chu said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
When Paraguayan opposition lawmaker Leidy Galeano returned from an all-expenses-paid tour of six Chinese cities late last year, she was convinced Paraguay risked missing out on major economic gains by sticking with longtime ally Taipei over Beijing — a message that participants on the trip heard repeatedly from Chinese officials. “Everything I saw there, I wanted for my country,” said Galeano, a member of the newly-formed Yo Creo party whose senior figures have spoken favorably about China. This trip and others like it — which people familiar with the visits said were at the invitation of the Chinese consulate in Sao Paulo
RSS