ID :
34004
Fri, 12/05/2008 - 09:32
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/34004
The shortlink copeid
Taiwan dispatches top officials to Japan to shore up ties
TAIPEI, Dec. 4 Kyodo -
Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung announced Thursday a
visit to Japan meant to improve bilateral ties, the first such visit by a KMT
head since May 20 President Ma Ying-jeou took office.
''We look forward to exchanging views with our hosts to
avoid...misunderstandings. This is our goal,'' Wu said at the KMT headquarters
in Taipei.
The trip is set for Dec. 7-13.
Wu's comments came as Taiwan's top envoy to China Chiang Pin-kung arrived
Thursday in Japan for a three-day visit.
Wu said Chiang is to explain the outcome of Taiwan's negotiations with China on
closer economic ties.
It was not immediately clear who Chiang will meet in Japan.
Regarding his own itinerary, Wu said he would meet with Tokyo Gov. Shintaro
Ishihara, Yokohama Mayor Hiroshi Nakada and members of the Liberal Democratic
Party, the New Komeito party and the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
''I can't make entirely public who I will meet with because of political
sensitivities,'' Wu said, adding he would meet other officials and travel to
Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka.
Wu will be in a 10-person delegation of KMT lawmakers and other ruling party
officials, said Steve Chan, deputy secretary of the KMT Central Committee.
China often frowns on high-level Japan visits by Taiwanese political leaders,
but Wu said he had not heard of any opposition from Beijing to his visit.
China has claimed Taiwan as its own since the two split amid civil war in 1949,
threatening to attack the self-governed island should it seek formalize the
split.
Wu said he had met Wednesday with Ma, who told the KMT chairman he
''understands the importance of our relations with Japan.''
Since Ma came to power, the island's ties with Tokyo have sometimes wobbled.
The most severe incident was a June 10 collision between a Taiwanese fishing
boat and a Japan Coast Guard vessel near the Senkakus, a Japan-administered
island chain that Taipei also lays claim to and calls the Tiaoyutai.
Relations between Taiwan and Japan were especially close under the island's
opposition Democratic Progressive Party, which lost to the KMT in the general
and presidential elections early this year.
The KMT officially supports eventual unification with China and has
traditionally fared poorly at establishing a rapport with Japan.
==Kyodo
Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung announced Thursday a
visit to Japan meant to improve bilateral ties, the first such visit by a KMT
head since May 20 President Ma Ying-jeou took office.
''We look forward to exchanging views with our hosts to
avoid...misunderstandings. This is our goal,'' Wu said at the KMT headquarters
in Taipei.
The trip is set for Dec. 7-13.
Wu's comments came as Taiwan's top envoy to China Chiang Pin-kung arrived
Thursday in Japan for a three-day visit.
Wu said Chiang is to explain the outcome of Taiwan's negotiations with China on
closer economic ties.
It was not immediately clear who Chiang will meet in Japan.
Regarding his own itinerary, Wu said he would meet with Tokyo Gov. Shintaro
Ishihara, Yokohama Mayor Hiroshi Nakada and members of the Liberal Democratic
Party, the New Komeito party and the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
''I can't make entirely public who I will meet with because of political
sensitivities,'' Wu said, adding he would meet other officials and travel to
Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka.
Wu will be in a 10-person delegation of KMT lawmakers and other ruling party
officials, said Steve Chan, deputy secretary of the KMT Central Committee.
China often frowns on high-level Japan visits by Taiwanese political leaders,
but Wu said he had not heard of any opposition from Beijing to his visit.
China has claimed Taiwan as its own since the two split amid civil war in 1949,
threatening to attack the self-governed island should it seek formalize the
split.
Wu said he had met Wednesday with Ma, who told the KMT chairman he
''understands the importance of our relations with Japan.''
Since Ma came to power, the island's ties with Tokyo have sometimes wobbled.
The most severe incident was a June 10 collision between a Taiwanese fishing
boat and a Japan Coast Guard vessel near the Senkakus, a Japan-administered
island chain that Taipei also lays claim to and calls the Tiaoyutai.
Relations between Taiwan and Japan were especially close under the island's
opposition Democratic Progressive Party, which lost to the KMT in the general
and presidential elections early this year.
The KMT officially supports eventual unification with China and has
traditionally fared poorly at establishing a rapport with Japan.
==Kyodo
