The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday accused the government of inaction following the alleged attack by a Japanese visitor on a comfort woman statue erected next to the party’s Tainan chapter offices.
Japanese Representative to Taiwan Mikio Numata must apologize for the incident, but the government has shied away from responding to the “intrusive and impudent” action of Mitsuhiko Fujii, a member of the Alliance for Truth About Comfort Women, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) told a news conference in Taipei.
Fujii can allegedly be seen in surveillance footage kicking the statue on Thursday last week during a visit to Taiwan to deliver an invitation to the Tainan Alliance for Comfort Women’s Rights to a public debate on the comfort women issue.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Fujii lied when he accused the KMT of altering the footage and said he had only stretched his leg because he felt a “numbness” in it, Ko said.
The Ministry of the Interior must list Fujii as an unwelcome person and Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) must lodge a formal protest with Tokyo over the incident, the caucus said.
Calling Fujii’s claims “pathetic and shameless,” KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said Fujii’s action had hurt the dignity of Taiwanese women and was intolerable.
As the nation’s first female leader, President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) silence over the incident was disheartening, Wang said.
Wang said she has completed a draft amendment to protect the rights of former comfort women and their families, which the incident showed are in need of strengthening.
Her proposal stipulates a prison term of up to one year and a fine of up to NT$10,000 for people who hurt the dignity of former comfort women through discriminatory actions, which would include disrespecting statues, she said.
The UN Human Rights Committee in 1996 defined comfort women as girls and women from several Asian nations who were abducted and forced into sexual slavery prior to and during World War II by the Japanese Imperial Army, Hua Hsia Social Welfare Association director-general Jennifer Wang (王如玄) told the news conference.
Japan and South Korea signed an agreement on Dec. 28, 2015, to resolve the comfort women issue, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issuing an apology and Tokyo issuing compensation, but Taiwanese comfort women have not yet received the apology and compensation they are due, Wang said.
“I have often wondered: Are Taiwanese not as human as South Koreans?” she said.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS