A Taiwanese fishing boat was detained by a patrol ship from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in waters south of Japan’s Sakishima Islands in Okinawa Prefecture in waters in which the exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and Japan overlap, government officials confirmed yesterday.
The incident was the first dispute between Taiwan and Japan since a new fisheries agreement came into effect on Friday last week.
The Japanese ministry said in a statement that the Cheng Chang Fa No. 2 was operating in waters surrounding Taketomi Island in Japan’s exclusive economic zone yesterday morning.
According to a report by Japan’s Central News Agency in Tokyo, the skipper of the Kaohsiung-based boat, Sun Chu-min (孫居民), admitted that the ship was operating in waters where fishing by Taiwanese vessels was not permitted.
Sun was released after paying a ¥4 million fine (US$39,430).
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, who asked to be kept anonymous, said that the incident took place within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone, but beyond the temporary enforcement line which was established unilaterally by Taiwan in 2003 to serve as an identification line to guarantee the safety of fishermen in the disputed waters.
Under the new fisheries agreement, Taiwanese fishing vessels can operate in a 74,000km2 area surrounding the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) — known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands. However, 4,530km2 of this area are beyond the temporary enforcement line.
The incident did not occur in the delineated zone covered under the fisheries accord.
Fisheries Agency Director-General James Sha (沙志一) yesterday urged Taiwanese fishermen to operate in areas designated under the agreement to prevent detainment by Japanese law enforcement.
Since the fisheries agreement came into effect, Japanese maritime law enforcement authorities have doubled the number patrol vessels in the area to crack down on illegal fishing, Sha said.
The Coast Guard Administration yesterday said the seizure of the Cheng Chang Fa No. 2 took place 46 nautical miles (85km) southeast of Ishigaki Island, 16 nautical miles beyond the temporary enforcement line.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods