Japanese lawmakers have been refraining from visiting China for fear of being arrested and not being able to return, while Taiwan is a popular destination, Japan’s Sankei Shimbun reported.
As 120 Japanese Diet members visited Taiwan last year and fewer than 10 went to China, Beijing hopes that they could visit China more often, Japanese Ambassador to China Kenji Kanasugi was cited as saying during a meeting of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party on Thursday last week.
Kanasugi was in Japan to attend the Conference of the Ambassadors to Asian and Oceanian Countries and International Organizations, which was held on Thursday and Friday last week.
Photo courtesy of the Legislative Yuan
“Even if asked to pay a visit, I might be arrested and not be able to go home,” one of the legislators attending the meeting said.
Chinese authorities in March last year detained an employee of Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma Inc on a charge of contravening China’s anti-espionage law.
Japan’s efforts through official channels to have the man released have been in vain.
Former Japanese Diet member Shiori Kanno, who has long been concerned about human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, was accused by the Hong Kong Department of Justice of being a “conspirator” with pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai (黎智英) for establishing the Japan Parliamentary Alliance on China.
The two did not know each other and had no interactions.
Japanese Diet member Arfiya Eri, who is of Uighur descent, on Tuesday last week said that Kanno could risk her safety if she went to China, or a country with which Beijing has an extradition treaty.
A survey conducted by Japan’s Nikkei newspaper last year showed that 74 percent of Japanese said they “dislike” China, a sentiment expressed by more than 70 percent of Japanese for six consecutive years, the paper reported last month.
On the other hand, 76.6 percent of Japanese said they felt “close” or “somewhat close” to Taiwan, a survey conducted last year by Tokyo-based Central Research Services showed.
Of the respondents, 65 percent said that Taiwan is “very trustworthy” or “trustworthy,” citing the two sides’ shared values.
Additional reporting by Liu Tzu-hsuan
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS