Taiwan has registered its unwavering assertion of sovereignty over the South China Sea with the Philippine government, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday.
“The Republic of China [ROC] possesses sovereignty over the South China Sea. We would like to cooperate with other countries to explore resources, but will not allow any act of intrusion upon our sovereignty,” said James Tien (田中光), director-general of the Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
The remarks came in response to continued actions by Manila to conduct a bid for the oil and gas exploration in the Reed Bank, part of the contested Spratly Islands (南沙群島).
The ministry said in a press release on Monday that the Spratlys, the Paracel Islands (西沙群島), Macclesfield Bank (中沙群島) and the Pratas Islands (東沙群島), as well as their surrounding waters, were ROC territory based on historical and geographical circumstances, and international law.
Taipei urged Manila and other claimants to refrain from making unilateral moves that would impact peace and stability in the region, the statement said.
Since March last year, the ministry has repeatedly issued statements asserting the ROC’s sovereignty over the South China Sea.
According to a Central News Agency report in Manila, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) declined to offer a formal response to Taipei’s statement because of its adherence to the “one China” policy and the absence of diplomatic relationships between the Philippines and Taiwan.
DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez was quoted by the agency as saying the oil and gas fields lie within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its