New Party to File Treason Charges against Lee Teng-hui for Selling out Diaoyutai to Japan

New Party to File Treason Charges against Lee Teng-hui for Selling out Diaoyutai to Japan

Source: All Taipei Newspapers

July 27, 2015

When asked “Do the Diaoyutai Islands belong to Japan or Taiwan?”on July 23^rd during his visit to Japan, former ROC President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) replied that he had responded to this question several times; the Senkaku Islands (Diaoyutai Islands) belong to Japan, not to Taiwan. On July 24^th, the Presidential Office said that remarks by anyone who denied the ROC’s sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands were tantamount to “forfeiting ROC sovereignty and thus humiliating the country.”

New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁幕明) called into question the secret meeting between Lee and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Yok said Lee, in collusion with foreigners, was thus being suspected of selling out the ROC Diaoyutai Islands, an act of treason in accordance with the Criminal Code. Yok said he would file a criminal charge against Lee with the Taiwan Provincial Prosecutors Office today, accusing him of “selling out Taiwan and betraying the ROC.”

A Brief History of the Diaoyutai Islands

Since 1562, the 41^st year of the Jiajing reign in the Ming Dynasty of China (1368–1644), the Diaoyutai Islands had been made China’s territory and included in Chouhaitubian (《籌海圖編》), the coastal defense planning by the Minister of War Hu Zong (胡宗), then the supreme commander against Japanese pirates. The Ming Dynasty was followed by the Qing Dynasty. Emperors Kangxi, Qianlong, and Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty also incorporated the Diaoyutai Islands into China's territory. Moreover, according to diplomatic documents between China, Japan, and the Ryukyu Kingdom, the Diaoyutai Islands did not belong to the Ryukyu Kingdom. Before Japan annexed the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1879, the three parties had confirmed that the Ryukyu Kingdom consisted of 36 islets while the chain of islets between Kume Island and Fuzhou belonged to Qing Dynasty China. The Republic of China, founded in 1912, was the successor state of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the Diaoyutai Islands are indisputably the territory of the Republic of China.

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