Deputy Legislative Speaker Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday urged president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to reiterate that Itu Aba Island (Taiping Island, 太平島) is a part of the nation’s territory in his inaugural address tomorrow.
Chiang made the call during a visit to the island with eight other KMT legislators and a Taiwan People’s Party lawmaker.
KMT Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君), who initiated the visit and cohairs the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, was initially to lead 20 legislators to the island, but many of them skipped the trip after a brawl at the Legislative Yuan on Friday in a session that ran until midnight.
Photo courtesy of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ma Wen-chun’s office
KMT legislators Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲), Huang Jen (黃仁), Huang Chien-hao (黃健豪), Liao Hsien-hsiang (廖先翔), Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐), Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋), along with TPP Legislator Chen Gau-tzu (陳昭姿) traveled with Ma and Chiang to Taiping.
Ma said the trip was a rare opportunity for the lawmakers to greet and show their gratitude to the military personnel stationed on the island, as well as to declare their determination to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Asked whether the visit might increase tensions in the region, Ma said that as Taiping is part of the nation’s territory, no individual or country can stop the lawmakers from visiting it.
Photo courtesy of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang’s office
After arriving on a C-130H Hercules transport aircraft, the legislators were briefed by military personnel prior to the inspection of a newly constructed pier.
Stationed 1,600km from Taiwan proper, the military personnel on the island face ever-changing geopolitical situations, Chiang said.
However, they do not need to feel alone as the legislators are behind them, he said.
“We bring our gratitude here,” he added.
He said he sent Lai a postcard from the island.
“You [Lai] and I [everyone] are responsible for keeping the ROC [Republic of China] peaceful forever,” he said he wrote, urging the president-elect in his inaugural address to reiterate that Taiping is part of the nation’s territory.
Yesterday was Chiang’s second visit to the island, after traveling there in 2016, shortly after an international tribunal in July concluded that all of the high-tide features in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), including Taiping, were legally “rocks.”
Chiang, the committee convener at that time, said he gathered lawmakers across party lines for the trip “to declare sovereignty, boost troop morale and demonstrate that it is indeed an island and undeniably a part of the ROC.”
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
RSS