- This paper is the English translation of the author's article that was published on Toyo bunka (an academic journal of the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, The University of Tokyo) in March 2014. The first draft of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Japan Association of Asian Studies (JAAS) on June 16, 2013. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the chairman, debaters, and members of JAAS for their valuable comments. I would also like to express my gratitude to the editors of Toyo bunka for their help in putting this paper together.
- In this paper, unless otherwise noted, “China” refers to the People's Republic of China.
- In June 1971, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan) issued a statement claiming territorial rights. Six months later, in December 1971, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China issued a similar statement.
- On June 10, 2008, the Taiwanese fishing boat “Lien Ho” collided with the Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel “Koshiki” and sank near the waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands. Protests occurred in Taiwan and a protest boat of the baodiao group, escorted by vessels of the Taiwan Coast Guard Administration, entered Japan's territorial waters off of the Senkaku Islands. The incident ended with Japan admitting its fault over the incident and providing compensation.
- Madoka Fukuda, “Ba eikyu seiken no ‘Tainichi tokubetsu patonashippu’: Chutai wakai no moto deno tainichi kankei suishin” [The Ma administration's ‘Taiwan-Japan Special Partnership’] Mondai to kenkyu [Issues and Studies] Volume 41 No. 4 (October/December 2012): 65–97.
- The official names are respectively, “Agreement between the Interchange Association and Association of East Asian Relations for the Mutual Cooperation on the Liberalization, Promotion and Protection of Investment” (entered into agreement on September 22, 2011), and “Exchange of Letters on the Maintenance of Civil Aviation Business” (entered into agreement on November 10, 2011). Since there are no diplomatic relations between Japan and Taiwan, it is designated as an “agreement,” not as a “treaty.”
- For example, Asahi Shimbun (Japan's leading daily newspaper) published an article on November 7, 2012 entitled “Difficulty in Japan-Taiwan Fisheries Negotiations, Taiwan Turning to Sovereignty Claim.” Another report from Asahi Shimbun on January 25, 2013 stated that “it seems as though the Ma administration has factored in that the fisheries negotiations with Japan would become stagnant. While saying that he would protect the fishermen, in actuality President Ma is more interested in the sovereignty issue than fishing rights.”
- Xian-de Xi, “Ma Ho-ling, Ma Ying-jeou fu zi yu ge ming shi jian yan jiu yuan” [Ma father and son in the research institute of revolutionary practice] Zhuan ji wen xue [Biographical Literature] 88.6 (2006): 9.
- Ibid, 18.
- This term includes students from Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, overseas Chinese, and overseas Chinese students living in the United States. In those days, there were few students from mainland China.
- Yi-hao Zeng, Ma Ying-jeou qian zhuan [Preliminary Biography of Ma Ying-jeou] (Taipei: Sitak Publishing, 1994): 102, 114.
- Ibid, 115.
- Ibid, 122.
- “China” in the paragraphs that introduce the early baodiao movement in the United States, refers to both mainland China and Taiwan. In order to prevent conflict between the supporters of the Republic of China and supporters of the People's Republic of China, the baodiao movement did not clarify the term “China.”
- ACPA. Ai meng bao diao: feng yun sui yue si shi nian [ACPA and baodiao: Stormy forty years] (Storm and Stress Publishing Co., 2012): 29.
- Ibid, 63.
- Lin-song Peng, Ma Ying-jeou zhe ge ren [This is Ma Ying-jeou] (Grassroots Pub-lishing, 2007): 34.
- Xiao-bo Wang, Ma Ying-jeou shi dai de li shi jian zheng [The testimony of the Ma Ying-jeou period] (Strait Academic Publishing, 2011): 349.
- In an interview with the Taiwan Tsushin (a Japanese magazine), the Secretary-General Huang Hsi-lin revealed the specific methods by which the Ma administration stopped the departure of the protest boat. According to him, the Ma administration sent high officials from the National Security Council and directly requested him not to depart. When the protest boat departed unpersuaded, it found vessels of the Navy waiting outside the port to prevent the departure (On the movement of “Let's Protect the Diaoyutai (Senkaku Islands),” Taiwan Tsushin (Sep. 17, 2010) at <http://taitsu-news.com/front/bin/ptdetail.phtml?Part=th10091701&Category=0>, searched date: 17 November 2013).
- A Chinese version of the doctoral thesis is available in Taiwan (Ma Ying-jeou. Cong xin hai yang fa lun Diaoyutai lie yu yu dong hai hua jie wen ti [The discussion of the boundary delimitation of the East China Sea from the viewpoint of the new Law of the Sea] (Cheng Chung Bookstore, 1986). However, the translation is not a full version but an abridged version, meanwhile international case laws and interpretations after the doctoral thesis was written have been added.
- In 1998, when Ma ran for Taipei City Mayor, multiple biographies of Ma Ying-jeou were published. The basis of these biographies was Yi-hao Zeng's Ma Ying-jeou qian zhuan (Sitak Publishing, 1994). Yi-hao Zeng wrote that “Ma's doctoral thesis was completed under the influence of the baodiao movement” (Yi-hao Zeng, op.cit., 124), but he did not introduce the details of the thesis. It is possible that this sentence was continually used, which led to the misinterpretation.
- In his doctoral thesis, Ma Ying-jeou consistently used the official name “the People's Republic of China (PRC)” and not “Communist China.” Further, regarding the sovereignty of the Diaoyutai, he wrote, “ROC's stance,” “PRC's stance,” and “Japan's stance” in a parallel structure. In regards to “China,” he used “the mainland and Taiwan” if he meant in a geographical sense. When talking politics, “China” means the Republic of China including mainland China and Taiwan. Ma also used the phrase “both China (ROC and PRC)” in his doctoral thesis. In this paper, in order to clarify what is written in Ma Ying-jeou's doctoral thesis, both the Republic of China (ROC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) are used.
- This interpretation is in conflict with the Japanese government, which positions the Senkaku Islands as the starting point of the EEZ.
- The proportionality principle delimits the boundaries of the continental shelf by comprehensively considering the locally relevant circumstances of an area according to equitable principles. This principle was also indicated in a ruling by the International Court of Justice on the North Sea Continental Shelf Cases of 1969 (Tadao Kuribayashi. “Haitateki keizai suiiki, tairikudana no kyokaikakutei ni kansuru kokusaihori—higashi shinakai ni okeru nicchukan no tairitsu wo megutte” [International law and principle on the delimitation of exclusive economic zone and continental shelf] (The Journal of the Graduate School of Toyo Eiwa University 2, 2006): 3.
- Although Ma's hypothetical boundary would ask China to compromise, but the Japanese government could not easily accept it.
- Tadao Kuribayashi, op. cit., 7.
- Ibid, 11.
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Declaration of the Republic of China on the Outer Limits of Its Continental Shelf, 12 May 2009. at <http://www.mofa.gov.tw/En/News_Content.aspx?n=1EADDCFD4C6EC567&sms=5B9044CF1188EE23&s=1DE6A7BA5C27CED3> (searched date: 17 November 2013). This statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated the natural prolongation principle of the continental shelf, and it can be supposed that this was composed while being aware of the response to two events that occurred in 2008, more specifically, to the Lien Ho incident between Japan and Taiwan and the announcement of joint development of gas fields between Japan and China.
- Full text of the interview is available on the Office of the President Homepage. Press Release from the Office of the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), “President Ma accepts interview with Ya zhou zhou kan,” (8 Nov. 2012), at <http://www.president.gov.tw/Default.aspx?tabid=131&itemid=28514&rmid=514&word1=%e4%ba%9e%e6%b4%b2%e9%80%b1%e5%88%8a&sd> (searched date: 17 November 2013).
- Press Release from the Office of the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), “President Ma attends press conference to mark opening of special exhibit for 75th anniversary of Marco Polo Bridge Incident” (7 Jul. 2012), at <http://www.president.gov.tw/Default.aspx?tabid=131&itemid=27658&rmid=514&word1=%e4%b8%83%e4%b8%83> (searched date: 17 November 2013).
- For instance, Asahi Shimbun on July 27, 2012 reported that “In regards to the territorial issue over the South China Sea and the Spratly Islands, a plan to cooperate with China is developing into a reality in Taiwan.” This article does not touch upon the East China Sea, but the title “Plan for cooperation with China” suggests other ideas.
- TVBS News (2 Oct. 2012), at <http://news.tvbs.com.tw/entry/32584> (searched date: 17 November 2013).
- Ibid.
- On September 16, 2012 when the tension between Japan and China heightened over the nationalization issue of the Senkaku Islands, the Director of the Taiwan Affairs Office, Wang Yi, called on Lien Chan and others, saying, “The compatriots across the Taiwan Straits stand firmly together on the cause of the Chinese nation and in the efforts to overcome differences between us, work together with one heart, and display to the rest of the world that we have a common goal regardless of whether there is any contradiction in our various ideas,” at <http://www.gwytb.gov.cn/wyly/201209/t20120916_3086824.htm> (searched date: 17 November 2013). On September 12, 2012, the spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office Fan Liqing also stated, “It is the unshakable duty and shared responsibility of compatriots across the strait to safeguard China's sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands and their affiliated islets, as well as the interests of the entire Chinese nation,” at <http://www.gwytb.gov.cn/xwfbh/201209/t20120912_3076877.htm> (searched date: 17 November 2013).
- For instance, Taiwan Fisheries Agency drafted the regulation on the management of the mackerel fishery. On October 30, 2012, the Agency held a meeting with the fishermen in Yilan County and received agreement on the regulation to set up a closure period of mackerel fishery (“Taiwan ga hokui 24 do ihoku de saba kinryoki settei: nittai gyogyo kyogi e fuseki” [Taiwan will impose self-restraint rule on the north of 24 degrees north latitude: A preparatory move for Japan-Taiwan fisheries negotiations] Sankei Shimbun (November 4, 2012).
- “Chugokusen: Taiwan kara keikoku” [Chinese vessels warned by Taiwan] Mainichi Shimbun (January 26, 2013), “Wo xuan shi zhu quan: da lu leng chu li” [We announced sovereignty, the mainland stayed calm] China Times (January 25, 2013).
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan), “Diaoyutai lie yu zhi zhu quan sheng ming: zai Diaoyutai lie yu zheng duan, wo guo bu yu zhong guo da lu he zuo zhi li chang” [The statement on the sovereignty of the Diaoyutai Islands: ROC will not cooperate with mainland China] (February 8, 2013), at <http://www.mofa.gov.tw/News_Content.aspx?n=AA60A1A7FEC4086B&sms=60ECE8A8F0DB165D&s=68C9A7761280E9E6> (searched date: 17 November 2013).
- The following is a response by Prime Minister Abe to a question from a Diet member Kazuya Maruyama of the Liberal Democratic Party at the Upper House Budget Committee on April 23, 2013. “Taiwan is extremely friendly to Japan, and with regards to the Great East Japan Earthquake… we received a huge financial aid from them… Settling on this fisheries agreement, which is a thorn in our relationship with Taiwan, would be a huge step forward in terms of the security environment in the Asia region… I understand that the agreement this time was an historic one. Also, Taiwan announced that it would not cooperate with China over the Senkaku Islands in February of this year before signing the agreement. I would like to state that the agreement was settled in light of this information.” (The National Diet debate search system, at <http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp/>, searched date: 17 November 2013).
- The number of “likes” on Shinzo Abe's Facebook post reached 73,700. As of June 2013, this was the highest number of “likes” since Prime Minister Abe started Facebook and it showed how huge the interest was toward Taiwan's support and the response by the Japanese government. Prime Minister Abe's second highest number of “likes” was on a post written on May 5, 2013 about baseball players Shigeo Nagashima and Hideki Matsui receiving National Honor Awards with 55,900 likes, and the third highest number of “likes” was on a post about Prime Minister Abe jogging with 47,500 likes. Regarding politics, Prime Minister Abe's Facebook usually receive around 10,000-30,000 likes; for instance, a meeting with President Obama received 32,700 likes and a meeting with President Putin received 23,800 likes (The number of “likes” is as of June 1, 2013 and is rounded to the nearest 10). Subsequently, there was a huge change in the number of “likes” on Prime Minister Abe's Facebook page. His post from Buenos Aires on September 8, 2013 reporting that Tokyo would host the 2020 Olympics received an unprecedented 174,000 likes.
- “Shou mei ya li qi liang an bao diao, lu gao ceng ji bu man Ma Ying-jeou” [Pressed by US and abandoned the cooperation on defending the Diaoyutai Islands: high-level officials of China are extremely dissatisfied with Ma Ying-jeou] Duo Wei News (March 5, 2013) at <http://taiwan.dwnews.com/news/2013-03-05/59153048.html> (searched date: 17 November 2013). 41 On August 31, 2010, at the Academic Symposium of the National Society of Taiwan Studies, Zhou Zhihuai, the secretary-general of the National Society of Taiwan Studies, related Hu Jintao's idea of a harmonious society to the “peaceful development of the cross-strait relations” and emphasized its significance (Zhihuai Zhou, “Lun hai xia liang an guan xi de he xie fa zhan” [On the harmonious development of the cross-strait relations] in Zhihuai Zhou, ed., Liang an guan xi: gong tong li yi yu he xie fa zhan [Cross-strait relations: Common interests and harmonious development] (Beijing: Jiuzhou Press, 2010): 1–9.
- In regards to the territorial rights of the Diaoyutai Islands, both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China claim in the same way as this: They discovered the islands during the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the Japanese government integrating the Senkaku Islands as unclaimed land and claiming as Japan's territory meant that Japan “stole” the islands. It was decided by the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations that the islands would be returned to China, and so on.
- Slogans such as “Defend Diaoyutai, defeat the international conspiracy” and “Destroy the plot by the U.S. and Japan” were used in the demonstrations that were held in six major cities across the United States on January 30, 1971 (ACPA, op.cit., 31).
- Choose new content alerts to be informed about new research of interest to you
- Easy remote access to your institution's subscriptions on any device, from any location
- Save your searches and schedule alerts to send you new results
- Export your search results into a .csv file to support your research