The Presidential Office yesterday rebutted former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) argument that the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) do not belong to Taiwan, saying it is an unquestionable fact that the Republic of China (ROC) holds sovereignty over the archipelago.
“Any remarks denying our sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands constitute an act of humiliating the nation and forfeiting its sovereignty. They will not be accepted by the ROC government, nor its people,” Presidential Office spokesman Charles Chen (陳以信) said.
Chen said it has been the government’s consistent stance that the Diaoyutai Islands have been an inherent part of the ROC since 1683.
“Our claims of sovereignty over the islands are based solidly on their location, geological composition, relevant historical evidence and international law, and are therefore cannot be disputed,” Chen said.
Chen was referring to Lee’s remarks in his latest book, titled Last Days: My Life’s Journey and the Roadmap of Taiwan’s Democratization, in which he wrote: “The Diaoyutai archipelago not being a part of Taiwan’s territory is an indubitable fact.”
“Those politicians who have blindly followed others and claimed the islands as belonging to Taiwan are just ignorant and lacking in common sense,” Lee wrote in the book, which was released on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday urged president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to express her stance on Lee’s claims in his book that “cross-strait relations are between two nations.”
“From the beginning of her presidential campaign to now, Tsai has failed to explain her cross-strait policies and has been evasive on issues regarding the ROC’s national identity,” KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said in a news release.
Lin said the public might have been willing to put up with Tsai’s ambiguous attitude and empty rhetoric before the elections, but as the nation’s next head of state, she is now obligated to let the public know her real thoughts.
Tsai was believed to be a champion of Lee’s “special state-to-state” theory, as she was a key figure at the National Security Council when the former president tendered the idea in 1999, Lin said.
“Now that Tsai has been elected president and the DPP is set to gain complete control over the nation, there is no longer room for Tsai’s position to remain oblique and for her to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the issue,” Lin said.
The president-elect should take the opportunity to assuage the public’s concerns by elucidating her cross-strait policy and stance on Taiwan’s national identity, Lin added.
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
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in
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