Visiting former Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori said yesterday that the US' friendship with Taiwan was solid and spoke of firm ties between Japan and Taiwan, while Beijing repeated its protest against Mori's trip.
Mori reassured Taiwan over its relationships with Japan and the US during a dinner banquet he hosted for the Taiwanese alumni of Japan's Waseda University and Keio University in Taipei's Grand Formosa Regent Hotel, where he is staying during his three-day private visit.
Lo Fu-chen (羅福全), representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan, and Hsu Shui-teh (許水德), president of Taiwan's Association of East Asian Relations, accompanied Mori to the banquet.
The banquet started at around 6:30pm and Mori left the hotel before 8pm. According to Hsu, Mori left the dinner early to meet with his old friend Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, Taiwan's semi-official body handling cross-strait affairs.
Banquet participants quoted Mori as saying that "the US has treated Taiwan better than it has done Japan" because Taiwan's geographic position is important to the US.
Mori talked a lot about rugby during the dinner, participants said.
Banquet guests included national policy advisers Huang Tien-lin (
Mori met with former president Lee Teng-hui (
Prime minister from 2000 to 2001, Mori defied pressure from China and at home, including from his then-minister of foreign affairs Yohei Kono, to issue a visa to Lee so that he could undergo heart surgery in Osaka in April 2001.
Still influential in Japan's politics, Mori's faction occupies 51 of his Liberal Democratic Party's 245 seats in the 480-seat Japanese House of Representatives.
Mori is a supporter of current Japanese Prime Junichiro Koizumi, who is also a member of the Mori faction.
After his meeting with Lee yesterday, Mori's heavily guarded motorcade drove him to an undisclosed location at Shihlin. Mori was tight-lipped in his public appearances and declined to answer questions from reporters.
At around 3:30pm, accompanied by Lo, Mori visited the family of his late friend Lin Chin-ching (
Lin, also a national policy adviser and former president of the Association of East Asian Relations, passed away on Dec. 10. Mori paid tribute to his friend and told Lin's five children to take care of Lin's 79-year-old wife Wu Ai-kuei (吳愛桂).
Meanwhile, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested against Mori's visit to Taiwan yesterday.
NHK, Japan's public broadcast network, yesterday reported that Mori told President Chen Shui-bian (
The report quoted Mori as telling Chen to consider the difficulties faced by the US, now preoccupied with Iraq and North Korea.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from
RSS