Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday said the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) chairmanship campaign had influenced the territorial dispute with Japan, citing the presence of opposition lawmakers on the naval vessel that traveled near disputed waters.
"Some of the people who boarded the frigate did so out of concern for the fishermen, but some of them are doing it instead for their own campaigns," he said. "This fishing dispute is a complicated issue and the government can't take rash actions that might lead us to become an international laughingstock."
"The government is dedicated to protecting our fishermen, but we have to be meticulous with every step that we take," he added.
Hsieh said he disapproved of certain politicians riling the public over the fishing dispute, and said that international law was the basis for a resolution to the issue.
"I suggested to our fishermen that they could install a Global Positioning System on their boats, which might help them to confirm their location at sea," he said.
Hsieh said that the government would do its utmost to protect the rights and interests of the fishermen and to protect the country's sovereign territory, adding that the entire affair may attract international attention and therefore give the government more leverage in negotiations.
However, he said, emotional remarks would not be helpful in settling disagreements with Tokyo.
Coast Guard Administration Minister Shi Hwei-yow (許惠祐) yesterday said that protecting fishermen was the coast guard's task, and that the Ministry of National Defense should play only an assisting role. He said the roles of the two agencies were clear cut.
Hsu said the coast guard would establish a task force during the fishing season to deal with such matters and would also beef up patrols around disputed waters.
Democratic Progressive Party Secretary-General Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) criticized Wang and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for "taking advantage" of the fishing row to enhance their credibility as candidates for the KMT chairmanship.
Lee slammed Wang for misusing the office of legislative speaker and forcing the defense ministry to dispatch a naval vessel to boost his campaign.
He also said that Ma had disregarded Taiwan's strategic interests by saying that it is worth being more aggressive toward Japan if necessary.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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