The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday reasserted Taiwan’s sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in the disputed East China Sea, after the Japanese government expedited a plan to include Japan’s territorial claims over the island chain in its school curriculum.
The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on Tuesday announced that it is moving up implementation of its “national territory education” curriculum from 2022 to next year, according to a Kyodo News report.
Japanese high-school students are to be taught about the legitimacy of Japan’s territorial claims over several disputed islands, including Diaoyutai, as well as islets in the Sea of Japan known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.
Photo: Reuters
“The government has maintained a consistent stance on the issue, which is that the Diaoyutai Islands are part of the Republic of China’s territory,” ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said in a press release.
The reality that Taiwan enjoys sovereignty over the archipelago is not going to be changed by any country’s decision to categorize it as their own territory in school textbooks, Lee said.
The Taiwanese government has always advocated for a peaceful solution to territorial disputes to avoid situations in which a concerned party’s unilateral actions lead to heightened tensions in the region, Lee said.
The Diaoyutais, about 120 nautical miles (222.2km) northeast of Taipei, are also claimed by China.
To prevent tensions in the region from escalating, then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in 2012 proposed the East China Sea peace initiative while visiting Pengjia Islet (彭佳嶼), about 56km north of Taiwan proper.
The initiative calls for all parties to take action to reduce tensions, abide by international law, ensure the freedom of navigation and overflight, and seek a peaceful resolution to disputes.
After taking office in 2016, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has adopted a similar approach, reiterating Taiwan’s sovereignty over Diaoyutais while calling for a peaceful resolution to territorial disputes.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS