Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) endorsed Japan’s move to affirm its right to “collective self-defense,” saying it will strengthen the US-Japan strategic alliance and help stabilize the region.
The new rule was passed by the Cabinet led by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday and approves a reinterpretation of Article 9 in the constitution that allows the nation’s military to come to the aid of allies if they come under attack, even if Japan itself is not facing a foreign threat of force.
“The right to ‘collective self-defense’ is important to Japan and the US. Although the US has a powerful military, the nation is facing economic difficulty. Now that Japan is willing to exercise that right, the US will be more assured. It will also strengthen the US-Japan strategic alliance,” Lee said.
The former president said follow-up developments would see countries like the Philippines, Australia and India having closer military ties with Japan, and that Taiwan is to be affected as well.
Lee said the changed environment would lead to more restrained behavior by China, which behaves aggressively toward weaker nations amid its economic growth, such as by always bringing up [its claims on] the Diaoyutai Islands [釣魚台, or Senkaku Islands in Japan] and maritime disputes with Vietnam and the Philippines.
“After Japan’s approving the exercise of its right to collective self-defense, China will become less likely to make aggressive moves, so the entire Asian region will have more stability,” Lee said after attending a youth leadership training workshop.
“Japan should take this opportunity to amend Article 9 in its constitution. I also hope to see Japan make serious efforts to draft its own ‘Taiwan Relations Act,’ so Taiwan can have more stability,” he said.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
RSS