President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday stressed the nation’s role as a regional peacemaker amid tensions between Taiwan and the Philippines over a shooting incident, and said the navy and Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) joint patrol in the overlapping waters last week aimed to protect the safety of local fishermen, rather than being a military drill.
The combined exercise of the navy and CGA in waters about 164 nautical miles (304km) southeast of the southernmost tip of Taiwan — where the 15-tonne Taiwanese fishing boat Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28 was attacked by a Philippine Coast Guard vessel, leading to the death of fisherman Hung Shih-cheng (洪石成) — demonstrated the government’s determination to protect Taiwanese fishermen and allowed the Philippines to understand Taiwan’s stance, he said.
“Although it was a military exercise, we have no intentions of raising the tensions [between Taiwan and the Philippines]. However, our demands for the Philippine government to apologize and compensate will not change,” he said when meeting with Olivier Richard, director of the French Office in Taipei, in the Presidential Office.
Photo: CNA
Ma said the nation’s signing of a fisheries agreement with Japan last month protected the rights of fishermen in both countries and helped ease the tension in the East China Sea. He expected Taiwan and the Philippines to launch negotiations on fishery agreements soon and resolve the shooting incident.
“We’d like to engage in more exchanges with neighboring countries. Our fisheries agreement with Japan is having a positive impact on the East Sea, and the international community is welcoming such agreements,” he said.
Later, in an interview with Chinese-language broadcaster China Television aired yesterday, he said negotiations on a fishery agreement can still begin at any time, as such an agreement would provide fishermen from both sides with more guidelines and protection while operating in disputed waters.
“The incident is still under investigation, and we believe that the incident should be solved very soon,” he said.
When asked to comment on his low approval ratings in his fifth year in office, Ma said he has insisted on long-term reforms that would not receive applauds from the people in the short term, and said his administration will continue with the reform measures, including the government restructuring plans, pension reforms and tax reform for retired veterans, teachers and civil servants.
He acknowledged failing to carry out his “6-3-3” campaign pledge — annual economic growth of 6 percent, annual per capita income of US$30,000 and an unemployment rate of less than 3 percent per year — but said the government would not give up on those goals.
“The government is confronted with great challenges to meet the goals because of continuous global financial crisis. However, we haven’t given up on them, and we will work harder to realize the promise,” he said.
The US Department of State yesterday criticized Beijing over its misrepresentation of the US’ “one China” policy in the latest diplomatic salvo between the two countries over a bid by Taiwan to regain its observer status at the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy,” Department of State spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter. “The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s ‘one China principle’ — we remain committed to our longstanding, bipartisan one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, Three Joint Communiques, and
FATES LINKED: The US president said that sanctions on Russia over Ukraine must exact a ‘long-term price,’ because otherwise ‘what signal does that send to China?’ US President Joe Biden yesterday vowed that US forces would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack in his strongest statement to date on the issue. Beijing is already “flirting with danger,” Biden said following talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, in which the pair agreed to monitor Chinese naval activity and joint Chinese-Russian exercises. Asked if Washington was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, he replied: “Yes.” “That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said. “We agreed with the ‘one China’ policy, we signed on to it ... but the idea that it can be
INFORMATION LEAKED: Documents from Xinjiang purportedly showed top leaders in Beijing calling for a forceful crackdown and even orders to shoot to kill Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday held a videoconference with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet as she visited Xinjiang during a mission overshadowed by fresh allegations of Uighur abuses and fears she is being used as a public relations tool. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been accused of detaining more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the region as part of a years-long crackdown the US and lawmakers in other Western nations have labeled a “genocide.” China denies the allegations. Bachelet was expected to visit the cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on a six-day tour. The US
SUBTLE? While Biden said the US policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ on Taiwan had not changed, the group targeted China and Russia without naming them Leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the US yesterday warned against attempts to “change the status quo by force,” as concerns grow about whether China could invade Taiwan. The issue of Taiwan loomed over a leadership meeting in Tokyo of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) nations — the US, Japan, Australia and India — who stressed their determination to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region in the face of an increasingly assertive China, although Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the group was not targeting any one country. The four leaders said in a joint statement issued after their talks
RSS