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Taiwan upholds claim to Tiaoyutais despite latest Japanese gambit

ROC Central News Agency

2012/09/05 16:17:28

Taipei, Sept. 5 (CNA) The Republic of China's sovereignty over the Tiaoyutai Islands will remain unchanged despite Japan's latest move to nationalize the disputed islands by buying three of them that are privately owned, the government said Wednesday.

The Executive Yuan, the executive branch of government in Taiwan, reiterated Wednesday that the Tiaoyutais are an inherent part of the territory of the Republic of China (ROC), a historical fact that cannot be changed.

"Reports about the Japanese government's intention to buy islets from their private owner will not change the fact of ROC's sovereignty over the Tiaoyutais," it said.

The Executive Yuan was responding to a report Wednesday by the Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese daily, that the Japanese government has reached an agreement with a private owner of three islets in the island chain to buy them for 2.05 billion Japanese yen (around US$26 million).

The Japanese Cabinet will decide on appropriating funds for the purchase at a Cabinet meeting after mid-September, the report said.

The Tiaoyutai Islands have been in the spotlight recently and sparked a diplomatic spat between Japan and China after activists from Hong Kong and Japan made recent landings there to assert sovereignty claims.

In the latest salvo over the uninhabited island chain, the Japanese government recently announced the plan to buy the islets after Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara first broached a similar plan on the part of the Tokyo government in April.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday urged Japan to exercise self-restraint and refrain from taking rash actions on the Tiaoyutais that would destabilize the region.

Ministry spokesman Steve Hsia reaffirmed the government's stance on the Tiaoyutais, saying that they are indisputably an inherent part of the ROC's territory, whether based on history, geography, geology, international law or past usage.

The ROC government will not recognize unilateral stances or actions that could affect the ROC's sovereignty over the Tiaoyutais, he said.

He noted that the premise of President Ma Ying-jeou's East China Sea Peace Initiative is that the ROC -- Taiwan's official title -- has sovereignty over the disputed island chain, but that the rich resources in the region can be jointly developed.

"Japan should realize the existence of the dispute over the Tiaoyutais and deal with it in a peaceful and efficient way through rational dialogue," Hsia said.

The Tiaoyutai Islands, which lie about 100 nautical miles northeast of Taiwan, are currently controlled by Japan but are also claimed by Taiwan and China.

(By Hsia Chia-chen, Emmanuelle Tzeng and Lilian Wu)