The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday would not comment on reports that China was allegedly on the brink of permanently deploying large fisheries patrol vessels near the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) claimed by Taiwan, Japan and China.
Ministry spokesman James Chang (章計平) said the ministry was not able to comment, as the Mainland Affairs Council was responsible for assessing the authenticity of the information and communications with China.
Chang said the ministry would closely monitor reports on the matter and restated the ministry’s position that all parties should set aside disputes and handle the matter peacefully and rationally.
PHOTO: AFP
A diplomatic official told the Taipei Times on condition of anonymity that the deployment was related to Japan’s new defense guidelines, approved by the Diet on Friday, which painted China as a bigger threat than Russia and as a result was shifting its defense from the northern island of Hokkaido to the south, such as Okinawa and territories claimed by both Japan and China.
The Asahi Shimbun reported on Monday that an unnamed “senior Chinese official” at the Ministry of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries had informed it in an exclusive interview on Saturday that China could soon permanently deploy large fisheries patrol vessels in waters near the Diaoyutais.
The deployment, the official said, was part of measures to challenge Japan’s control of the islands off Okinawa Prefecture, over which Japan has de facto control, although sovereignty is contested.
Beijing intends to press its claims over the Diaoyutais and to disclose details of its surveillance activities to other countries, the official said.
In comments that have yet to be confirmed by the Chinese government and could constitute “selective leaking” to assess foreign reactions, the official said the -patrol vessels to be deployed to the area would have a displacement of more than 1,000 tonnes and -maintain continuous patrols near the islands.
Late last month, China deployed the new 2,580 tonne Yuzheng 310 — which is equipped with two helicopters and, at 22 knots, is reportedly the fastest ship in China’s 1,300-vessel fisheries patrol fleet — near the islands. The Yuzheng 310 and Yuzheng 201 were spotted in the area on Nov. 20, the Japan Coast Guard said.
According to the Asahi, China’s fleet at present only comports nine vessels with displacement above 1,000 tonnes.
Beijing reportedly has a five-year plan to build at least five new patrol vessels of more than 3,000-tonne displacement. Until this is achieved, and as China’s current fleet is insufficient to ensure constant surveillance of the Diaoyutais, Beijing will commission private fishing boats to operate as patrol boats in the area in a joint effort by “the government and the private sector,” the paper reported.
“It is a legitimate right to safeguard China’s maritime interests and the country is unlikely to -relax the arrangement in the future,” the official told the Asahi, calling the move “unprecedented” and “epoch-making.”
Besides its claims of ownership over the Diaoyutais, which are located in the East China Sea, China also claims sovereignty over the South China Sea, describing it as a “core national interest” on par with Taiwan and Tibet and key to its “national integrity.”
The announcement comes amid rising regional tensions over disputed waters and a series of collisions involving Chinese fishing vessels. Regional powers, including the US, are increasingly wary of Beijing’s claims over the South China Sea and East China Sea, effectively the entire waters included within the “first island chain” — a line that extends from the Kurile Islands, the main Japanese islands, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
‘LONE WOLF’: The suspect was difficult to locate, as he did not use a cellphone, did not contact family and often lived in abandoned sites or parks, police said Taipei police on Thursday morning arrested a man accused of numerous burglaries and at least 14 incidents of sexual assault spanning more than 20 years, in what might be the nation’s most notorious crime spree in recent years. Sixty-year-old Tu Ming-lang (涂明朗) — who was yesterday placed in judicial detention, after a judge determined he was a flight risk without a fixed address — faces multiple charges of sexual assault and burglary, police said. A task force comprised of various law enforcement agencies arrested Tu as part of an investigation into an April 28 burglary in Daan District (大安), in which a
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
ASEAN BATTLEGROUND: Japan and Australia could be drawn into Pacific tensions as China sets its sights on the Diaoyutai Islands and further beyond the first island chain Tensions between China and the US in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to intensify, the National Security Bureau and Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, recommending that Taiwan continue to emphasize its shared values and interests to encourage resistance to Chinese aggression. US commitments in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to continue unabated despite the war in Ukraine, as Beijing takes advantage of the conflict to expand its influence in the region, the agencies said in reports delivered to the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Sunday, ahead of a hearing yesterday on regional developments and trends. Although Russia’s invasion of
ONLINE REPORT: Confirmed cases filling out the online contact tracing report can check a box to indicate that a close contact had received a booster dose, an official said The guidelines for diagnosing COVID-19 have been revised to include people aged 65 or older who test positive with a rapid test that is confirmed by a healthcare worker, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 65,794 new local infections. The CECC had first announced the change on Monday, before publishing the new guidelines. Starting today, people aged 65 or older, regardless of whether they are undergoing home quarantine, home isolation or self-disease prevention, can be classified as a confirmed COVID-19 case by a healthcare professional, based on a positive result from an antigen rapid test, said
RSS