The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said that Taiwan considers Mongolia an independent country.
The move follows the Ministry of the Interior's (MOI) recent decision to exclude Mongolia from the official map of the ROC.
"Mongolia declared independence in 1921 and became the 191st member of the United Nations in 1961. It has official diplomatic ties with 144 countries. Under international law, it is an independent country," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Katharine Chang (張小月) said during the ministry's routine weekly press conference.
The MOI announced its decision on the new national boundary as part of the amendment to the "Guidelines on Publication of the ROC Map," last week. The announcement was welcomed by academics and the media yesterday as a step toward the recognition of Mongolia as an independent state.
The ministry's move, however, sparked debate over whether recognition of Mongolia is a constitutional issue requiring deliberation by the National Assembly or just a practical matter that could be dealt with by amending administrative rules.
Emile Sheng (
Article 4 of the ROC Constitution states that the territory of the ROC may not be altered except by resolution of the National Assembly.
Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (
"We made the decision out of practical considerations," Yu told reporters yesterday, adding that the constitutional issue was beyond his authority to deal with.
An MOI official said that Mongolia had not been part of ROC territory when the constitution was ratified in 1947 and that the matter should therefore not be considered a constitutional one.
The confusion surrounding the issue is based on the fact that the treaty whereby Taipei recognized Mongolia was revoked in 1953. The ministry's proposal would simply confirm Mongolia as enjoying the independent status it enjoyed before the Sino-Soviet Friendship Treaty of August 1945 was abrogated in 1953.
In that treaty, the ROC had agreed to recognize Mongolian independence if the Mongolian people voted in favor of it in a referendum. A referendum was held in October 1945, with the electorate voting overwhelmingly for independence. The ROC, therefore, recognized Mongolia in January 1946.
When the treaty was revoked in 1953, Mongolia was deemed by the ROC to have reverted to its control.
The MAC revised regulations earlier this year to allow Mongolian nationals to enter Taiwan using Mongolian passports, rather than separate travel documents issued by the Taiwan government.
The MOI also amended an article to grant the government the power to determine the nation's boundaries and capital on the official map, removing the former obligation to reflect the boundaries and capital as they were in 1949 when the ROC government fled China for Taiwan.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS