I learned something today I did not know. You may not know it either.
You may have heard that earlier this week the Japan Coast Guard sank a vessel in the East China Sea. The vessel, ostensibly a fishing boat, had intruded, uninvited, into Japanese territorial waters
("What? Again!?!")
You may have heard that individuals on the island of Taiwan responded to the sinking, which resulted in no casualties or injuries, in a rather entertaining, if also worryingly belligerent fashion.
You may have also heard that the president of Taiwan, while not relinquishing a centimeter on Taiwan's claim upon the islets, sought to calm the waters, so to speak.
The Yomiuri Shimbun has opined that the maritime maneuvering over the Senkakus is the result of the Taiwanese president's need to switch to an anti-Japanese stance after a decline in his government's popularity.
What I have learned is that it is a bit more complicated than that: President Ma Ying-jeou fancies himself to be something of an expert on the legal status of the Senkakus.
Wait, strike that.
President Ma Ying-jeou is an expert on the legal status of the Senkakus .
He will be hard to push around or fool, I am afraid.
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Huge hat tip to Michael Turton of The View from Taiwan.
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1 comment:
It was his Harvard dissertation..."Trouble over Oily Waters."
And you should note for your readers that on Nov 9th, Ma endorsed and allowed the Chinese Association for Protection of Taioyutai to have official, registered nonprofit status. This was never allowed before.
This "happened" to coincide with the adoption by the Legislative Yuan, for the first time, of a resolution asking Japan to apologize to the Comfort Women.
Between Dokdo and this, it is becoming lonely waters for Japan.
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