“Ma’s predecessor, Chen Shui-bian, took a much softer line on the issue, seeking friendly relations with Japan and toeing an ambiguous line on Taiwan’s claim to the islands.

Actually, the Tiaoyutais are ROC territory from a historical, geographical, and legal point of view. The Ma administration must stand firm on this position, or it will not only disappoint the people of Taiwan, but people in other Chinese communities as well.”

Ma is trying to change the tide of Taiwanese nationalism into Chinese nationalism by using Senkaku issues,of which was a success,I must say.

Ma must be firm on Tiaoyutai issue

Ma must address the nation

It doesn’t seem to me like Ma has done a good job of making anyone happy with this fiasco. People expect a president to take a stand, and when he said something like “well, it’s the job of lower level officials” to take care of a major international territorial dispute right after assuming office, it hardly inspired the voters.

That’s not totally true, since the Diaoyutai are claimed by both Taiwan and China- except of course the KMT position is still that Taiwan is still in some vague way part of China so from the Chinese side, defending the islands from Japan can just as easily be considered pro-Chinese sovereignty as pro-Taiwan. In fact, I even read a brief mention that there were some sort of protests in China supporting Taiwan’s action against Japan for these islands, although I haven’t tried to find any details yet.

“This is why I think people were so annoyed/surprised that he hasn’t been making any statement. ”

“People”are annoyed with Ma for not gettting much tougher to the Japanese,No?

Anyway,at least KMT can now bring this up to any criticism of “selling Taiwanese sovereginity”from Greens.
This happened in Hong Kong in 1997 right before the turn over.The democrats in HK used The Senkaku issue to gather more attention from the public and deter the criticism from mainland-connected media that “democrats are un-patriotic for they side with Chris Patten and not Jiang Zemin”.

I wonder how big Ma’s KMT scholarship was. He claimed that he got a green card while studying in the US so he could apply for American scholarships or student loans and not because he wanted to live abroad, which was one of the biggest issues in the campaign.

I think the last line of the article is the real substance though-
“　ただ、陳水扁前総統が任命した許氏は政権交代に伴い、近く辞任する予定だった。”
Making that statement when he resigned is just to embarass someone else.

That seems to be the press coverage in all Japanese media.
But “premire,who is not under contol of the President’s office? The premire of the Executive Yuan is appointed by the president and unlike the DPP days,KMT is also dominant in Legistrative Yuan.So is Minister of Foreign Affiairs.They must have permission from Ma.He is just watching the situation by unleashing his aides and acolytes.

BTW,did you know that Ma Ying-yeou’s doctoral thesis at at Harvard was legal status of Diaoyutai and he went there with scholarship from KMT?

“You don’t see the Chinese or Koreans being talking like this about Japanese diplomatic language.”

How about this.
“許氏は「これ以上の屈辱を受けることはできない」として辞任を決めた。”
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20080616-00000086-mai-int

Ofcourse.Koh had been in exile in Japan for 33 years and was the professor in TsudaJyuku Women’s University in Tokyo.He also has colorful friends in Japan.
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/world/china/080601/chn0806012150002-n1.htm

Even the severely anti-KMT papers don’t seem to be putting this dispute too much on Ma- but are angry at him for being totally ineffectual at taking care of it. The crazy war statement was made by the Premier, who is not under control of the President’s office. From what I’ve seen, there’s still been no statement from Ma himself on this issue, aside from something vague about “sovereignty” that didn’t address any of the specifics of the incident.

BTW, this quote from the Taiwanese Representative to Japan Koh (許世楷) and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ou (歐鴻鍊) is interesting:

“The Japanese word for “regret” can also mean “apology,” said Koh at a press conference late last night after a 45-minute closed door meeting with Ou.

“In many instances throughout the history, Japan used the word ‘regret’ to express its apology,” he said.

When asked if the ministry would accept such answer, Ou smiled and said: “We can feel Japan’s good will in their response in this matter.”

You don’t see the Chinese or Koreans being talking like this about Japanese diplomatic language.