The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday called on the government to develop tourism and station more troops on Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島).
KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Te-fu (林德福) urged President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to visit the island to defend the nation’s sovereignty, rather than just boarding a warship and then sending it to patrol the area.
Tsai yesterday inspected a Kang Ding-class frigate before it departed on a patrol mission to the South China Sea.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“Taiping Island being downgraded to a rock is going to leave sequelae; its exclusive economic zone will be stripped, our logistics work might be restricted by the Philippines, and tensions with Manila will rise,” Lin said, adding that the government should open Itu Aba to tourists and see that there is fresh water, animal farming, vegetable growing and electricity production on the island.
KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) slammed Tsai’s inspection as a stunt.
“The public wants to see her visiting the island to make clear the nation’s claim, not boarding a vessel — that means nothing,” she said.
During yesterday’s meeting of the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee, Wang suggested that Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) market bottled water from Itu Aba to let the world know that the island has a fresh-water source.
KMT Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said Tsai’s administration seemed to have been caught offguard by the ruling.
Neither the premier nor the president have made a public address or held an international news conference, he said.
“We do not know how the government plans to respond to events in the wake of the ruling,” he said.
“The ruling has made possible the scenario in which nations compete to seize resources in the region, that could include natural gas, oil, minerals and fishing rights,” Chiang said. “It would be a state of nature in which might is the determining factor.”
“Now is a time where reasoning and laws are useless, as fists are what really counts,” KMT Legislator Lu Yu-ling (呂玉玲) said. “We should flex our military muscles, increase the number of missiles and troops on the island and stage live-fire military drills in the South China Sea.”
KMT Legislator Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) took issue with the Japanese judge handling the South China Sea case, who she alleged “did not allow [Taiwanese] fishermen to sail within 200 nautical miles [370.4km] of the Okinotori atoll — which Japan claims is an island.”
“However, given that Taiping Island is 54,000 times larger than the Okinotori atoll, why then is the former a ‘rock’ and the latter an ‘island,’” she said.
Hsu also criticized Tsai for “not openly upholding ‘the U-shaped line’ in the belief that doing so would distance her from China and garner US support.
The “U-shaped line” refers to the Republic of China’s claim of sovereign territory in the South China Sea post-World War II, in accordance with agreements made in the Cairo Declaration of Nov. 27, 1943, and the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945.
“The ruling has indicated that Taiwan cannot leave its diplomatic and cross-strait issues and its sovereignty to other countries,” Hsu said.
TAIWAN PROTECTION MEASURE: US Army General Charles Flynn would not say where in the Asia-Pacific the missiles would be sent, but only that they would arrive in 2024 The US is to send medium-range missiles including the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) and Tomahawk to the Asia-Pacific next year to deter a Chinese attack on Taiwan, US military news Web site Defense One reported. The report cited comments US Army General Charles Flynn made during the annual Halifax International Security Forum on Nov. 19. “We have tested them and we have a battery or two of them today,” Flynn was quoted as saying. “In [20]24. We intend to deploy that system in your region. I’m not going to say where and when. But I will just say that we will
UNUSUAL UPTICK: There are more flu-like illnesses in northern China than in the past 3 years, but data from Beijing showed that known pathogens are responsible Responding to an uptick in respiratory illnesses in China, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it has instructed international airport and port quarantine centers to raise their alert levels, and plans to issue an alert to healthcare practitioners. The number of flu-like illnesses reported in northern China has been increasing for five consecutive weeks, and is higher than the same period in the past three years, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said. “According to the WHO’s latest statement, issued yesterday, information provided by Chinese government showed that the illnesses were mainly reported among children, and the illnesses were attributed
LOYALTY: The 10 active and retired soldiers betrayed the nation and its people by leaking and passing on military secrets to China, the High Prosecutors’ Office said Ten former and current military officers were yesterday indicted on charges of spying for China, including two who allegedly filmed themselves pledging loyalty to Beijing. The High Prosecutors’ Office requested life imprisonment for the suspects in light of the severity of the crime. The 10 active-duty and retired officers included members of the 601st Brigade of the Aviation Special Forces comprising attack helicopter squadrons and elite combat units in charge of defending northern Taiwan, including Taipei. The other suspects came from Huadong Defense Command, in charge of defending the eastern coast; Kinmen Defense Command, in charge of defending Kinmen and Matsu; and one
THREE-WAY RACE: Hou You-yi said until the last minute he hoped to run with Ko Wen-je, but the latter did not pick up the phone when he called to make a final pitch The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) registered their own candidates yesterday after a breakdown in coalition talks, while independent candidate Terry Gou (郭台銘) dropped out, setting up a three-way race for the presidential election in January. TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was the first to officially register his candidacy with the Central Election Commission in Taipei yesterday, shortly after naming TPP Legislator Cynthia Wu (吳欣盈) as his running mate. Wu, the daughter of former Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控) chairman Eugene Wu (吳東進), is a TPP legislator-at-large who was appointed in November last year and had served
RSS