The administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is intensifying efforts to win Washington’s support for its disputed claim to the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台).
After spending US$500,000 on full-page advertisements in the US press earlier this month, Taipei launched a diplomatic blitz. On Oct. 17 it sent former representative to the US Stephen Chen (陳錫蕃) to tell a meeting at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) about the fine details of Taiwan’s claim to the islands. The next day, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) argued for Taiwan’s right to the islands on the Web site of the Foreign Policy Magazine.
Throughout the month Taiwanese officials have been lobbying the administration of US President Barack Obama and members of the US Congress. In particular they have been trying to win support for Ma’s proposed peace plan for managing the ownership dispute, which involves China and Japan, by agreeing to share resources.
Sources close to the Washington administration have told the Taipei Times that the US has continued to refuse to take sides in the argument, but one source who refused to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the issue said that within the US Department of State many officials were privately leaning toward the Japanese claim.
“While most attention has focused on the standoff between China and Japan, the Diaoyutai Islands actually form an inherent part of the territory of the Republic of China [Taiwan] based on the islands’ geographical location, geological structure, relevant historical evidence and international law,” Lin wrote.
“Japan’s claim over the islands simply does not stand up to close scrutiny,” he said.
However, Lin stressed that while Taiwan had a “compelling case” for sovereignty over the islands Ma was “mindful of the need” to foster regional peace and stability. He recalled that Ma had proposed an East China Sea peace initiative calling on all parties concerned to refrain from taking any antagonistic actions, shelve controversies, resolve disputes through peaceful means and seek a consensus with the aim of establishing a code of conduct for cooperation in the East China Sea.
“While Taiwan sovereignty is indivisible, resources in the Diaoyutai region can be shared,” Lin said.
“Under the circumstances, President Ma’s peace initiative offers a constructive approach to reducing tensions in the region and resolving disputes between the parties concerned in a peaceful manner,” Lin added.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT