Government set to protect islands

The government will soon officially decree that the northern demarcation of Taiwan's 370km economic zone starts with the disputed Tiaoyutai Islands, it was reported yesterday.

Taipei adopted the 370km economic zone in February 1999 without emphasizing its northern boundary.

The planned move is expected to stir yet another diplomatic row as the Tiaoyutai Island group is also claimed by China and Japan, a Chinese-language newspaper said.

Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) said the demarcation was aimed at protecting the safety and interests of his countrymen engaging in offshore economic activities such as fishing and deep-sea exploration, according to the paper.

Yu said that although no action in the past had been taken to solve the long-running sovereignty dispute, the country was now prepared to settle the controversial issue diplomatically.

The Tiaoyutai group is located in the East China Sea between Taiwan and Okinawa and lies 150km northeast of Taiwan.

The heated territorial dispute came to the fore in the early 1970s, when China and Taiwan made their claims to the islands after oil deposits were confirmed in the area by a UN agency.

The government decided to get tough after Japan cracked down on foreign trawlers in the East China Sea in January and ignored its request to resume bilateral negotiations on the issue.

Taiwanese fishermen have been prohibited from fishing in the area since China and Japan signed a fishing pact in 2000 to settle a dispute over boundaries and fishing arrangements in their overlapping economic zones.

Taiwan considers the East China Sea "traditional fishing grounds" of its fishermen and started talks with Japan in 1996 to fight for its rights.

The government has insisted Taiwanese fisherman be allowed to trawl in waters near Tiaoyutai until an agreement is reached.