Two patrol boats yesterday left Kaohsiung for international waters near the Okinotori atoll in the Western Pacific in response to a directive from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to protect Taiwanese fishing boats operating in the area.
The deployment of a Coast Guard Administration (CGA) ship and one belonging to the Fisheries Agency came after a Taiwanese fishing boat, the Tung Sheng Chi No. 16, was seized on Monday last week by the Japan Coast Guard while operating in waters about 150 nautical miles (228km) from the uninhabited atoll.
The boat and its crew were released the following day after the boat’s owner paid a security deposit demanded by Japanese authorities.
Photo: CNA
Japan claims a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone around the atoll, which it says is an island, but which Taiwan says is a reef and therefore is not entitled to anything more than a 500m “security zone.”
Taiwan lodged a protest with Japan and Ma instructed government agencies to step up protection for fishermen operating in waters near the atoll.
Coast guard officials told a news conference before the ships departed that the agency would adopt the principles of no evasion, no confrontation and no provocation in its protection of Taiwanese fishing boats operating in the area.
Photo: Hung Chen-hung, Taipei Times
However, CGA Deputy Director-General Yao Chou-tien (姚洲典) said that Taiwan would respond should Japan use water cannons or take unfriendly action against Taiwanese fishing vessels, adding that he hopes protection of fishing rights would be enforced peacefully and rationally.
The coast guard vessel is equipped with automatic cannons and machine guns.
Yao said the deployment conforms with the principle of freedom of fishing on the high seas stipulated in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and is part of the CGA’s routine patrol missions.
The two patrol boats have LED display boards showing a scrolling message: “We are exercising the freedom of fishing. Do not disturb,” in Chinese, English and Japanese.
It is expected to take them three to five days to reach the atoll.
Yao said the fishery protection program would last for one month.
There are 100 to 200 fishing boats from the port of Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County and Pingtung County’s Donggang (東港) and Siaoliouciou (小琉球) operating in the area, according to Lin Ding-rong (林頂榮), director of the Fisheries Agency’s Deep Sea Fisheries Division.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS