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.”
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