The government reiterated that the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) are part of the Republic of China (ROC) and outlined its historical case supporting the claim to counter Japan’s efforts to nationalize the archipelago.
“We hope the Japanese government will clearly see the historical truth and not take any actions that could undermine the peaceful situation in East Asia,” the Executive Yuan said in a statement.
“The Republic of China will not recognize the validity of the so-called purchase deal between the Japanese government and the private owner,” it said.
The Executive Yuan asserted that the ROC’s sovereignty over the island group is an indisputable historical fact.
China mentioned the Diaoyutais as early as 1403 in historical documents and they were listed as part of China in Chinese and foreign maps in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Executive Yuan said.
Historical documents have also shown that Chinese people first found, named and used the land and that they were not uninhabited islets.
The Executive Yuan said the Japanese government has been trying to take over ownership of the Diaoyutais since 1885 and that it secretly ordered an inspection of the island group to set up a “national marker” there.
However, Okinawa Prefecture head Sutezo Nishimura reported that the island group had been named by China and used for many years and he suggested a delay in the project, arguing that it was not appropriate to set up national markers, the Executive Yuan said.
According to the government, the territory is now under the jurisdiction of Yilan County, which registered the Diaoyutais as national land in accordance with the Land Act (土地法) in January 2004 and listed the total area as measuring 612 hectares spanning 61 parcels of land.
According to current land values, posted by the government in January this year, the Diaoyutai Islands are worth NT$190 per square meter, or a total of NT$1.16 billion (US$39.1 million).
The Japanese government’s purchase of three of the Diaoyutai Islands from a private owner on Tuesday has sparked condemnation in Taiwan.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) traveled on Friday last week to Pengjia Islet (彭佳嶼), located 141km west of the Diaoyutais, to symbolically protest Japan’s move and reassert the ROC’s sovereignty over the archipelago.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS