A visiting former Japanese justice minister today said it is important for closer bilateral collaboration on joint deterrence capabilities to prevent a "Taiwan contingency" from happening.
Japanese House of Representatives member Keisuke Suzuki, who served as justice minister in the former Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba's Cabinet, from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), made the comments during a press event in Taipei to conclude his three-day visit.
Photo courtesy of the Presidential Office
During the visit from Monday through today, Suzuki said he and his delegation met with President William Lai (賴清德), Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安).
"We exchanged views concerning ways to enhance Japan-Taiwan relations, and touched on issues relating to the latest regional situations," Suzuki said via an interpreter.
"We have concluded that to make sure a 'Taiwan contingency' does not happen, we need to beef up our deterrence capabilities," he said, without elaborating.
Asked to comment if he and his Taiwanese counterparts discussed ways to enhance bilateral defense cooperation during their meetings in Taipei, Suzuki did not give a direct answer.
He declined to disclose details of his talks with Taiwanese officials, saying only that both sides agreed to work closely to uphold regional peace and stability.
Suzuki was joined by his fellow House of Representatives members from the LDP, including Akihisa Nagashima, a former special adviser to Ishiba, and Junichi Kanda, a former Japanese vice minister of justice.
Their visit came as Tokyo and Beijing are in a diplomatic spat over recent remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Japan's potential response to a "Taiwan contingency."
Takaichi last month said that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would count as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, and thus could warrant a military response from Tokyo, which drew an angry reaction from Beijing.
China's actions against Japan have included travel and study advisories, a ban on Japanese marine products and multiple rounds of military drills.
During today's press event, Nagashima said that the Taipei trip was planned months in advance and is not related to the ongoing Japan-China skirmish.
Lawmakers' traveling overseas to conduct exchanges are to continue despite the lack of official ties between Tokyo and Taipei, he said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan has activated backup communications for its northernmost territory, the remote and strategically located island of Dongyin (東引), after poor weather conditions apparently shifted the wreckage of a ship onto an undersea cable causing it to break. The vulnerability of undersea communication cables linking Taiwan with its outlying islands has been a persistent cause of concern for Taipei, whose government has on several occasions blamed Chinese ships for intentionally causing damage. Dongyin, home to about 1,500 people, sits in a strategic position at the top of the Taiwan Strait and the island has a heavy military presence. It does not have an
RSS