Ex-president's Diaoyutai remarks contradict his own actions: official
ROC Central News Agency
2016/02/18 12:37:08
Taipei, Feb. 18 (CNA) The latest claim by former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) that the Diaoyutai Islands do not belong to Taiwan contradicts the actions he took over the islands when he was in office, a Presidential Office spokesman said Thursday.
It was during Lee's presidential term that the 6.1636 square-kilometer Diaoyutais were registered in Taiwan as the territorial area of Yilan County in July 1997, Charles Chen (陳以信) pointed out.
In February 1999, also during Lee's term in office, the Diaoyutais were marked within Taiwan's territorial sea baseline, published for the first time by the Cabinet, Chen noted. Lee was president from 1988 to 2000.
The spokesman questioned why Lee took these steps to highlight the Republic of China's sovereignty over the Diaoyutais if he believes the island group belongs to Japan.
He reiterated that the Diaoyutais are an inherent part of Republic of China territory and that any statements that deny this fact are tantamount to the surrender of the country's sovereign rights under humiliating terms.
In a newly published book titled 'Remaining Life: My Life Journey and the Road of Taiwan's Democracy' (餘生：我的生命之旅與台灣民主之路), Lee writes that 'the Diaoyutai Islands do not belong to Taiwan. This is an unquestionable fact.'
Lee also criticizes former Premier Yu Shyi-kun's (游錫堃) decision to include the islands under the administration of Toucheng Township (頭城) in Yilan County, saying that 'there is nothing more stupid than this.'
Chen countered by saying that there are a lot of factual errors in 93-year-old Lee's new book.
He pointed out that the Diaoyutais were included under the administration of Yilan as early as December 1971, during the tenure of then-Premier Yen Chia-kan (嚴家淦), rather than when Yu was in office.
He also rebutted Lee's arguments that the current ROC is no longer its former self and should be seen as a 'second republic' and that there is one state on either side of the Taiwan Strait.
Chen said the ROC has existed for 105 years since its foundation in 1912 as the first democratic republic in Asia and is definitely not a so-called 'second republic.'
Since the ROC Constitution was implemented in 1947, the country's constitutional order has been operating stably and has not undergone any changes, he said.
Unless a new Constitution is enacted, the ROC cannot become a 'second republic,' he said.
On cross-strait relations, Chen said that during Lee's term in office, the government defined the two sides of the strait as two equal political entities, and according to a constitutional amendment promoted by Lee in the 1990s, the ROC is divided into the 'free area' and the 'mainland area.'
Based on the current ROC Constitution, relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are definitely not those between 'two states' and the ROC cannot officially recognize the People's Republic of China, he said.
(By Hsieh Chia-chen and Y.F. Low)
ENDITEM/J
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
