The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday expressed support for the planned renaming of the Interchange Association, Japan to the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association from Sunday.
The association represents Japan’s interests in Taiwan in the absence of bilateral diplomatic ties, which ended in 1972. Taiwan also set up a de facto embassy with an ambiguous title in Tokyo, called the Association of East Asian Relations, which was renamed the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan in 1992.
The ministry said that the new name reflects the business activities carried out by the association and is a positive development in Taiwan-Japan relations.
Photo: CNA
Saying that the two nations have become closer in recent years, the ministry added that Japan is Taiwan’s third-largest trade partner, while Taiwan is Japan’s fourth-largest. Bilateral trade totaled US$57.9 billion last year.
In addition, there were 5.3 million travelers between Taiwan and Japan last year and that number could surpass 6 million this year, the ministry said.
Taiwan and Japan share the universal values of democratic governance, freedom and the rule of law, with various public opinion polls showing the close and friendly relations between Taiwanese and Japanese, the ministry said, while expressing the hope that the two will continue to expand and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation.
Photo: CNA
The move could represent the greatest breakthrough since the foundation was established in 1972 after official diplomatic ties between the two nations were severed, and is expected to further Taiwan-Japan relations.
Former leader Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) administration proposed that the Japan-based association be named the Japan-China Interchange Foundation, which Tokyo rejected, anonymous sources said.
Like its Taiwanese counterpart, the then-Association of East Asian Relations, their vague appellations caused bafflement as to what their purposes were.
The sources said that the timing of the name change was because “times have changed,” which has manifested itself in several ways.
“In the 1980s and 1990s, there were not many substantial exchanges between Japan and Taiwan, but the total number of tourists visiting both nations has surpassed 6 million in recent years, and exchanges have been plentiful on a wide range of issues,” the sources said.
A recent survey by the Japanese government found that only 10 percent of Taiwanese respondents said they knew what “the functions of the Interchange Association, Japan, were, while 80 percent said the opposite, the sources said.
Association officials did not confirm if the name change signals a deepening of Taipei-Tokyo relations, but dismissed speculation that the move was inspired by US president-elect Donald Trump’s perceived stance on Taiwan, saying that it was planned, a source said.
A Japanese official said that it was “Taiwan’s business” if it changes the name of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan to the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan, but added that the potential political implications should be assessed before a change is made, the source said.
Japanese officials said that Taiwan submitted a request to change the representative office title during former representative to Japan Koh Se-kai’s (許世楷) term between 2004 and 2008, adding that the ministry has never made such a request.
“China remains firm and consistent on issues regarding Taiwan affairs. We strongly oppose any attempts at creating the frameworks of ‘one China, one Taiwan’ or ‘two China’s.’ We express our strong protest against Japan’s passive stance over Taiwan affairs,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said at a news conference in Beijing in response to the proposed name change.
“China urges Japan to adhere to the principles set forth in the Japan-China Joint Communique and honor the promises it has made to China, uphold the ‘one China’ principle and refrain from sending false signals to Taiwan and the international community, thereby causing new problems to China-Japan relations,” she said.
China has initiated negotiations with Japan over the issue, she said.
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has