Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taiwan, Japan ink fisheries agreement

Taipei Times

Association for East Asian Relations Chairman Liao Liou-yi, right, yesterday shakes hands with Interchange Association, Japan Chairman Mitsuo Ohashi as they sign an agreement that defines the two countries’ respective fishing rights near the Diaoyutai Islands at the Taipei Guest House.
Photo: CNA

Taiwan and Japan yesterday inked a fisheries agreement in a bid to end controversies over fishing in waters surrounding the contested Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The agreement includes an escape clause which Taipei said allows both sides to set aside disputes over their competing sovereignty claims.

The agreement assured Taiwanese vessels an intervention-free fishing zone in waters between 27° north latitude and the Sakishima Islands, Okinawa Prefecture, and gave Taiwan an additional fishing zone of 1,400 square nautical miles (4,800km2) outside Taiwan’s temporary enforcement line, government officials said.

Ministry to ask ‘most appropriate decision’ on A-bian

Taipei Times

The Ministry of Justice will ask the Taipei Prison and the Agency of Corrections to make the “most appropriate decision” on former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) treatment in about three weeks’ time, Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) said yesterday.

The ministry on Monday received a medical report from Taipei Veterans General Hospital, where the imprisoned former president has received treatment since September last year, and would authorize the two institutions to make a final decision on Chen’s future, Tseng told lawmakers in a plenary session yesterday.

Taiwan, China wooing Scotland

Colin Alexander

There may be a diplomatic truce between Taiwan and China, but that has not stopped both sides from seeking to win the affection of the Scottish government. On Sept. 18 next year, Scotland will hold a referendum on whether it is to remain part of the UK or become an independent nation-state, and this has brought increased attention from both diplomatic missions in the capital, Edinburgh.

Since the early 1950s, Taipei and Beijing have competed with each other to win the diplomatic allegiance of countries around the world, with China gaining ascendancy in its campaign after it replaced Taiwan as a member of the UN Security Council in 1971.

Reinterpreting a dictator’s legacy

Huang Chang-ling and Yeh Hung-ling 黃長玲，葉虹靈

The National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall is running a competition — the CKS Design Competition — to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Soong Mayling (宋美齡), the third wife of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石). The objective of the competition is to “re-establish an emotional connection between the public and the CKS Memorial Hall, and to produce an identification with emotional and cultural values.”

As members of a civic group long concerned about transitional justice, we cannot agree with this, and we also strongly object to official attempts to re-interpret the despotic leader who presided over the Martial Law era in Taiwan in this fashion, utterly devoid of any historical or political basis.

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