Two fishing Boats from Pingtung County -- Chin Chun Man and Yu Yin Tsai -- safely arrived in Chengkung Harbor last week after escaping from the custody of Philippine police and military. Days earlier, four other Pingtung fishing boats had also seized an opportunity to escape from the Philippines, this time thanks to a typhoon. Two Taiwan fishing boats remain in the custody of the Philippine authorities.
Taiwanese fishing boats are often detained and their crews subjected to inhumane treatment such as extortion by the Philippine military and police. Besides expressing sympathy and concern, we also hope that the government will no longer be evasive about the problems. As the fishermen's livelihoods are taken from them, the government should no longer pander to the whims of the Philippines and let workers from that country take the jobs of Taiwanese. The scope of the problem involves much more than the wrongful taking of the livelihoods and property of Taiwan's fishermen. It also includes the nation's fishing industry and territorial water rights. Taiwan's government must immediately deal with the crisis to pacify the fishermen and safeguard this country's fishing rights and territorial waters.
As everyone knows, Taiwan's fishing boats often mistakenly enter the waters of other countries, such as the Philippines, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia. Some of them know they are sailing into foreign waters but, lured by the abundant fishery resources, decided to take the risk of getting caught. Examples include the East China Sea bordering South and North Korea, and the waters surrounding various South Pacific islands. These waters are far beyond the scope of Taiwan's territorial waters recognized under public international law. Without bilateral fishing agreements with the host countries, once any foreign fishing vessels is arrested in these waters, they can rely only on their government to save them via diplomatic channels. However, we should not just blame the fishermen for these fishing disputes, such as those with the Philippines and Japan near the Tiaoyutai islands. The problem is that, on the one hand, the boundary of Taiwan's officially declared territorial waters remain murky. On the other hand, fishery negotiations and cooperation with other countries have been conducted without any centralized mechanism and comprehensive strategies. It is true that Taiwan is in dispute with Philippines over the latter's claim for a 200 nautical mile (370km) exclusive economic zone, among others issues. But, Taiwan's government has been too passive in negotiations. Low-ranking officials are still the ones responsible for negotiating these deals. Moreover, government agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Council of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economic Affairs not only disagree over which of them should conduct the negotiations, but sometimes oppose each other on various issues. Under the circumstances, no wonder the fishermen take care of themselves rather than seek the help of the government. Such a vicious cycle can only aggravate and worsen the problem.
As far as Taiwan's relationship with the Philippines goes, while the two countries do not have any official diplomatic ties, the substantive relationships between the Philippine government and Taiwan are no different from those with diplomatic ties. Why is it that the two sides cannot resort to bilateral negotiations in fishery disputes to establish a rational structural mechanism to deal with such disputes? The reason is that no powerful integrated mechanism exists within either government to deal with each other on these issues. On the surface, the two seem to have intensive interactions. Actually, the various interests and units within both governments do as they please and act according to their needs. The "connections" or "relationships" built cannot solve any problems. Therefore, the most urgent task for the Taiwan government is to create a cross-ministry mechanism capable of tackling the problems related to substantive relations with the Philippines and fishery disputes as well as to draft negotiation strategies in terms of national security, foreign affairs, fisheries and the economy. At the same time, the government should demand that the Philippines create an authoritative counterpart to negotiate with. This way the two sides can engage in bilateral negotiations with respect to issues such as the overlapping economic zones.
However, the waters surrounding the Tiaoyutai islands are part of the traditional fishing grounds of Taiwanese fishing boats. This is because Japan once occupied Taiwan, and the Taiwanese fishermen are simply continuing their practice since those days. The disputes over the sovereignty of the Tiaoyutais have never been subject to any arbitration pursuant to public international law. Therefore, according to international law, disputes over sea waters with disputed sovereignty or which qualify as historical or traditional fishing grounds should be resolved through negotiations in order to reach agreements on the sharing of resources. In terms of the northern sea waters of Taiwan, the exclusive economic zone is 200 nautical miles north of the baselines of the Tiaoyutai and Pengchiayu islands, which obviously overlaps the Chinese and Japanese EEZ. Negotiations must be held to reach mutually beneficial agreements based on international law for use of this disputed area. It is encouraging to know that in February of this year, after several rounds of negotiations, the governments of Taiwan and Japan finally reached a "mutual understanding." This demonstrates that so long as government officials work hard at it and cooperate with each other, nothing is impossible. Moreover, the fishing associations and government agencies must unite and cooperate. From dealing with fishing disputes to participation in fishery cooperation and seeking judicial remedies, there must be an integrated policy and enforcement framework.
The Executive Yuan has already establish a task force to deal with the fishery disputes with the Philippines. Premier Yu Shyi-kun also made the following instructions: to actively safeguard the rights of the fishermen, to establish a communication mechanism with the relevant countries and to actively offer legal and diplomatic assistance to the family members of the fishermen detained by the Philippines. However, this is a mere bandaid for the current problems. To get to the root of the problems, the government must immediately make an unequivocal claim for a 200 nautical mile economic zone pursuant to international law. Also, the government must strengthen the defense capability of the coast guard, so that once problems are discovered, they can help without being asked. This is the way to demonstrate the determination of the government to uphold sovereignty rights over territorial waters and the fishing rights of the fishermen.
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