Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday criticized China for lodging a protest against Japan’s Sankei Shimbun after it published an interview with him, saying that Beijing infringed on the press freedom of the two Asian democracies.
“It is astonishing that the authoritarian China not only cannot tolerate freedom of speech and of the press inside its borders, but it has also interfered with that enjoyed by the two most democratic Asian nations with the greatest press freedom,” Wu was quoted by Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) as saying.
The incident proves that China poses a threat to the global values of freedom and democracy, Wu said, calling on like-minded nations to work together to prevent the trend from spreading.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
China’s protest also shows that “we have done something right,” Wu added.
In the interview published on Wednesday, Wu called for Taiwan and Japan to initiate a security dialogue on the grounds that ensuring security is a shared responsibility of the two nations.
Wu also criticized China for limiting the room for interpretation of its “one China” principle, which he said cannot be accepted by Taiwanese.
After the US severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1979, it enacted the Taiwan Relations Act that laid down a legal foundation for a security dialogue between Washington and Taipei, the report said.
However, there is no legal foundation for exchanges between Japan and Taiwan after they broke off relations in 1972, it added.
The Chinese embassy in Japan lodged a stern protest against the Sankei Shimbun, saying that Taiwan is a part of China and that the article included portions that advocated Taiwanese independence.
When the newspaper opened a branch office in China, it pledged to abide by the “one China” principle in its reporting, a consensus that the paper had contravened, the embassy said.
“In the process of the normalization of China-Japan relations, we hope to see the Sankei Shimbun publish reports that are conducive to the establishment of mutual understanding between the Japanese and Chinese people,” the embassy said.
Relations between Taiwan and Japan are handled by two non-governmental agencies, the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association and the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, which last year changed their names to better reflect their functions.
The Taiwan-Japan Relations Association was previously called the Association of East Asian Relations, while the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association was previously called the Interchange Association, Japan.
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
Some foreign companies are considering moving Taiwanese employees out of China after Beijing said it could impose the death penalty on “die-hard” Taiwanese independence advocates, four people familiar with the matter said. The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure, said the people, who include a lawyer and two executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Several companies have come to us to assess the risks to their personnel,” said the lawyer, James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. He declined to identify