Taiwan is saying it has sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands. That’s after Japan’s Ishigaki Municipal Assembly voted on Monday to change the administrative designation of the islands from Tonoshiro to “Tonoshiro Senkaku”.
Taiwan, Japan and China all lay claim to the uninhabited islands located in the East China Sea.
Taiwan’s representative to Japan Frank Hsieh said in a Facebook post that in June 1971, the US announced that it was giving the Diaoyutai and Ryukyu Islands to Japan. He said this was a page in history, but no one can tell him how the Republic of China protested at the time.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Joanne Ou said that the Taiwan government has never changed its stance of sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands. She said Taiwan will continue to use peaceful and rational means to deal with sovereignty disputes. It will also protect the rights of Taiwan’s fishermen.
The Yilan County Council has voted to change the official name of the Diaoyutai Islands to “Toucheng Diaoyutai” and sent the proposal to the Ministry of Interior. Interior minister Hsu Kuo-Yung said that the name change is under the jurisdiction of the local government and that the ministry would deal with the proposal according to the law.