Representative to Japan Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) yesterday accused Beijing of interference after Taiwan’s official delegation to the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony in Japan was assigned seating in the “international non-governmental organizations [NGO]” area.
“Taiwan is by no means an international NGO, but a sovereign nation that is active on the international stage,” Lee said.
Lee and Chen Ming-chun (陳銘俊), head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Fukuoka, attended the ceremony in Nagasaki yesterday, which marked the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan via CNA
That followed Lee’s attendance at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Wednesday — the first time Taiwan was invited — in which the Taiwanese delegation was seated in the area for diplomatic envoys.
Although Nagasaki initially did not invite Taiwan to the ceremony, the nation’s representatives eventually received an invitation for the first time thanks to multi-party communication and mutual understanding, Lee said, thanking the Nagasaki administration and those who assisted in the process.
However, the event organizers arranged for the Taiwanese delegation to be seated in the “international NGO” area, he said.
Despite the seating arrangement, TECO decided to attend the ceremony, considering Taiwan’s top goal of conveying to the world its determination for pursuing peace and its years of efforts to demonstrate its close connection with the international community, he said.
“We understand that the inappropriate arrangement by the host, Nagasaki City, has its reasons,” Lee said, accusing Beijing of being “the force pulling the strings behind the scenes.”
China, which had taken part in the annual memorial for years, did not attend Saturday’s event, and the Nagasaki government did not provide a reason.
The ceremony, held at Nagasaki Peace Park, commemorated the victims of the atomic bombing by the US on Aug. 9, 1945, which killed an estimated 74,000 people.
It was the second atomic bomb that the US dropped on Japanese soil to stop the Japanese imperial army in Asia, following the bombing of Hiroshima three days earlier, which claimed about 140,000 lives.
Most of the casualties were civilians.
Lee cited data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute that showed China’s nuclear arsenal is growing faster than any other country’s.
China’s behavior runs against the noble and peaceful idea of a “world free of nuclear weapons” advocated by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he added.
Lee during the ceremony said that it is deeply regrettable that China, which is expanding its nuclear arsenal, is suppressing Taiwan, which is pursuing peace.
Taiwan has long played an indispensable role in the international society and is the world’s 22nd-largest economy, leading in various fields including high-tech, democratic governance and healthcare, and is absolutely not an “international NGO,” but an active sovereign state, he said.
As a responsible and peace-loving member of the international society, Taiwan would continue to cooperate with Japan, the US and other like-minded partners in countering authoritarian expansion, and protect the peace, stability and sustainable prosperity in the Taiwan Strait and Indo-Pacific region, he added.
Additional reporting by CNA
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
Tsunami waves were possible in three areas of Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East, the Russian Ministry for Emergency Services said yesterday after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. “The expected wave heights are low, but you must still move away from the shore,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, after the latest seismic activity in the area. However, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System in Hawaii said there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The Russian tsunami alert was later canceled. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA
South Korea yesterday said that it was removing loudspeakers used to blare K-pop and news reports to North Korea, as the new administration in Seoul tries to ease tensions with its bellicose neighbor. The nations, still technically at war, had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. It said in June that Pyongyang stopped transmitting bizarre, unsettling noises along the border that had become a major nuisance for South Korean residents, a day after South Korea’s loudspeakers fell silent. “Starting today, the military has begun removing the loudspeakers,”
CHINA’s BULLYING: The former British prime minister said that he believes ‘Taiwan can and will’ protect its freedom and democracy, as its people are lovers of liberty Former British prime minister Boris Johnson yesterday said Western nations should have the courage to stand with and deepen their economic partnerships with Taiwan in the face of China’s intensified pressure. He made the remarks at the ninth Ketagalan Forum: 2025 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prospect Foundation in Taipei. Johnson, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time, said he had seen Taiwan’s coastline on a screen on his indoor bicycle, but wanted to learn more about the nation, including its artificial intelligence (AI) development, the key technology of the 21st century. Calling himself an
RSS