Japan supports warming relations across the Taiwan Strait: KMT chief

TAIPEI, Feb. 12 Kyodo - Japan welcomes the recent warming in relations between Taiwan and China, but it
continues to fret over security issues in the Taiwan Strait and seeks to
strengthen ties between Tokyo and Taipei, Nationalist Party Chairman Wu
Poh-hsiung said Thursday.

''The Japanese basically support the peaceful development across the
strait...but are worried about security issues,'' Wu told members of the Taiwan
Foreign Correspondents Club in Taipei, adding, ''They also hope Taiwan will
strengthen contacts with Japan.''
Since President Ma Ying-jeou of the ruling KMT took office last year,
cross-strait ties have been on an upswing, reducing the risk of conflict in the
strait, one of Asia's oldest flashpoints.
Ma has engineered the detente with Beijing by emphasizing economic cooperation
with the historic rival over a longstanding sovereignty spat.
China and Taiwan have been self-governed since 1949, when the KMT retreated to
and began ruling Taiwan after its defeat by the communists on the mainland in a
civil war.
But despite the island's de facto sovereignty, Beijing has claimed Taipei as
its own, vowing war should the island seek to formalize its independence.
Relations were tense under Ma's predecessors, former presidents Chen Shui-bian
and Lee Teng-hui, who asserted the island's sovereignty and riled China.
Ma's approach has marked a reverse of those tensions, with the two sides
setting up new transit and tourism links and regularly engaging each other in
trade talks.
''Now, the Japanese feel the Taiwan Strait, for now, won't see any pitched
conflicts, and so they've expressed optimism over this development,'' Wu said.
But while cross-strait relations experience a historical shift, the island's
relations with Japan destabilized last year.
In June, a Japan Coast Guard vessel struck and sank a Taiwanese fishing boat in
disputed waters near the Senkaku Islands, a chain of Japan-administered islets
in the East China Sea in waters rich in fish and possibly with natural gas
deposits under the seabed.
Though no one was hurt in the collision, the incident reignited an old
sovereignty spat over the Senkakus, which Taipei also claims as its own and
calls the Diaoyutai.
Taipei insists its fishing vessels should be allowed to ply the waters around
the Senkakus, while Tokyo typically drives them out, sometimes detaining
captains and levying steep fines.
Taipei recalled its chief representative to Tokyo, while Taiwanese Premier Liu
Chao-shiuan threatened war over the incident amid an alarming deterioration in
usually warm bilateral relations.
Since then, however, relations have made a comeback, with the two sides gearing
up for negotiations on joint development of fishery resources.
''The issue of the Diaoyutai is a problem, but we need to resolve this matter
in a peaceful and reasonable way,'' Wu said.
==Kyodo