Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said yesterday that the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in the East China Sea are inherent territory of the Republic of China and added that the government “will not back down on any sovereignty issue.”
Lin’s remarks came after tensions in the region escalated after US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talked about Washington’s policy toward the island group in a Jan. 18 news conference.
Clinton said the US does not have a position on the ultimate sovereignty of the islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan, but acknowledges that they are under Tokyo’s administration and opposes “any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese administration.”
Lin made it clear that sovereignty is different to administrative control over a territory.
He added that Clinton also said that the US wants to see “China and Japan resolve this matter peacefully through dialogue,” indicating that the US acknowledges the existence of disputes over the island group and that it wishes for regional peace and stability, which is in line with the wishes of Taiwan.
As for Japan’s administrative control over the Diaoyutais, Lin said Taiwan wishes to conduct negotiations with Japan over fishing rights in the disputed area. He said his ministry is still working on a second round of preparatory fishery talks with Japan, adding that no timetable has been set for the next preparatory meeting.
In November last year Taiwan and Japan held a preparatory meeting to discuss a resumption of formal talks to address the issue of fishing rights in the waters surrounding the Diaoyutais. Taiwan and Japan last held talks on fishing rights in their overlapping territories in 2009, but the discussions have been stalled since then.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taiwan is bracing for a political shake-up as a majority of directly elected lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) face the prospect of early removal from office in an unprecedented wave of recall votes slated for July 26 and Aug. 23. The outcome of the public votes targeting 26 KMT lawmakers in the next two months — and potentially five more at later dates — could upend the power structure in the legislature, where the KMT and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) currently hold a combined majority. After denying direct involvement in the recall campaigns for months, the
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