Want China Times
Date: 2015-10-30
By: CNA and Staff Reporter
The presidential candidate of Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang, Eric Chu, said Wednesday he
The USS Lassen was sent to challenge Beijing’s 12-nautical-mile limit around its artificial islands in the South China Sea on Oct. 27. (Photo courtesy of USS Lassen’s Facebook)
will not stand behind the United States on the South China Sea issue, while his Democratic Progressive Party rival sounded more in tune with the US.
Amid growing tensions between China and the US over the South China Sea, the DPP’s leader and presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen said all countries have an obligation to maintain the right to freely fly over or navigate through the disputed region.
“My position on the South China Sea has been clear all the time, that is, all parties should put forth their proposals and state their stances based on the legal principles of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” she said.
Under those principles, foreign vessels, both military and civilian, are allowed innocent passage through territorial waters.
