Coast guard vessels from Taiwan and Japan dueled with water cannons yesterday as Taiwanese fishing boats sailed close to the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) to assert Taiwanese sovereignty over the islets.
The fishing boats came as close as 3 nautical miles (5.5km) to the Diaoyutais, known as the Senkakus in Japan, but were thwarted from making a possible landing by Japanese coast guard vessels, which deterred the protesters from approaching any further.
The Taiwanese boats arrived near the Diaoyutais at about 5am yesterday after sailing overnight escorted by 10 Coast Guard Administration (CGA) ships.
Photo: Kyodo / Reuters
The fishing boats assembled 18 nautical miles off the Diaoyutais to prepare for their planned circumnavigation of the island group in pods of five ships each. Their approach led to a standoff between the Taiwanese coast guard ships and their Japanese counterparts.
More than 10 Japanese patrol boats used flashlights and water cannons to disperse the Taiwanese fishing vessels, warning them over loudspeakers to leave. At one point, they also dropped smaller boats into the water and tried ramming them into the fishing boats.
CGA ships responded by firing water cannons and using loudspeakers and LED lights to say, in Chinese, “This is Taiwan’s territorial waters. You should not interfere with the operations of our fishermen.”
CGA ships sailed between the Taiwanese fishing vessels and Japanese patrol boats, at one point stopping in front of the Japanese boats to allow the fishing vessels room to maneuver.
Lin Jih-cheng (林日成), commander of an organizing committee on safeguarding fishing rights, said the ships were able to sail near the Diaoyutais and achieved the aim of their protest.
Considering the rough sea conditions, Lin announced at 9am that “the mission is completed, and all fishing boats will return to Nanfangao.”
CGA vessels remained about 4 nautical miles from the Diaoyutais to see that all fishing boats left the area safely.
The 75 Taiwanese fishing vessels, carrying banners reading “Defend our territorial waters” and “Diaoyutais are ours,” set off from the fishing port of Nanfangao (南方澳) in Yilan County on Monday to protest Japan’s recent move to nationalize the islands by buying three of them from a private owner.
The Diaoyutais, about 120 nautical miles northeast of Taipei, are administered by Japan, but claimed by Taiwan and China, and the fishermen wanted to assert Taiwanese sovereignty over the islands and their right to operate in what they call their traditional fishing grounds.
The CGA said its main goal was to prevent Japanese ships from boarding Taiwanese fishing boats or taking Taiwanese fishermen into custody.
CGA Deputy Director-General Wang Chung-yi (王崇儀) said the agency had simulated possible scenarios beforehand for the encounter and expected Japan to send large ships to the site.
“Japan mobilized 21 ships, with the largest weighing 6,000 tonnes,” Wang said.
He said that because of the rough sea conditions around the Diaoyutais, with waves as high as 4m, the CGA did not take more aggressive action, out of consideration for the fishing vessels.
He also said the coast guard did not encounter Chinese fishing boats during its escort mission, but noted that there were five Chinese patrol ships around the island chain, all outside the 12 nautical mile territorial zone.
The Ministry of National Defense said the navy dispatched one Cheng Kung and two Chi Yang-class frigates in waters off the coast of northeastern Taiwan in support of the Taiwanese fishing boats. Several sorties of F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighters also monitored the situation while conducting routine reconnaissance missions.
The island chain has been a traditional fishing ground of Taiwanese fishermen for several decades, but they have been harassed and chased away by Japanese coast guard ships in recent years.
Taiwan and Japan have held 16 rounds of fisheries talks to try to solve the dispute, to no avail.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft