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Diplomacy
Taiwan Joins the Senkaku Protests
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Shen
Tokyo -- Those wishing to paint Beijing in dark tones over its fierce denunciations of Japan's handling of the recent Senkaku Islands affair will have to deal with the inconvenient fact that protests in democratic Taiwan - at least at the popular level - have been equally intense.
Today in Taipei, about one hundred protesters threw fish at the offices of the Interchange Association, the Japanese institution that serves as its unofficial embassy.
The protestors were responding to the Japan Coast Guard's interception of a Taiwanese protest vessel carrying two activists determined to land on one of the disputed islands. Two JCG ships pursued the protest vessel, called the Kan En No. 99, and chased it away from the Senkakus in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Yesterday, Taiwan's Deputy Foreign Minister Shen Lyushun summoned Japanese envoy Tadashi Imai and reiterated that it was Taiwan that holds sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands (called the Tiaoyutais in Taiwan).
Taiwanese Foreign Ministry Spokesman James Chang, however, denied that Taipei's action had anything to do with similar actions in Beijing.
"Taiwan is not teaming up with China in the controversy," Chang said.
PanOrient News
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