Fishermen from Hualien County, accompanied by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus, yesterday demanded the government take a firm stance on the issue of fishermen’s rights in disputed waters near the Okinotori atoll, with KMT Legislator Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚) from Hualien applauding Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) for calling the atoll a reef during a question-and-answer session at the legislature on Monday.
The KMT caucus said the government has an “ambivalent view” about whether the Okinotori atoll is a reef after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs refuted what Yeh said by saying that maritime disputes should be resolved through international arbitration or negotiations between all parties concerned, in line with international law.
Yeh later said that he respects the ministry’s position.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The KMT caucus said that the fishermen’s disappointment over the government’s stance has turned into anger, citing fishermen from Pingtung County as saying on Tuesday that if the government does not dispatch patrol ships to protect fishermen, they would stage a protest in Taipei just as the pig farmers had done on Tuesday.
Lin Chun-chi (林俊吉), a fisherman from Hualien, said that although the Japan Coast Guard has withdrawn its ships from what Tokyo claims as its 200 nautical mile (370.4km) exclusive economic zone (EEZ) near the Okinotori atoll after a talk between the two governments, “with our patrol ships also withdrawing from the [disputed waters], we will not dare to enter the area again.”
“In this way the problem is not at all solved,” Lin said.
KMT caucus whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) said the KMT caucus’ stance is unwavering in maintaining that Okinotori is a reef, calling on the government to “defend the nation’s dignity and the fishermen’s rights to fish in international waters.”
Lin added that there is no need to engage in negotiations with Japan as “[the disputed waters] have always been international waters and negotiating with Japan would compromise the nation’s claim.”
Before the KMT caucus held a press conference, the fishermen from Hualien, led by Hsu, sat in on a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee, where they stood up and applauded Yeh when Hsu presented him with a “certificate of appreciation” and a plaque with an inscription reading: “Protecting the Fishermen and Guarding Taiwan.”
During the session, Hsu praised Yeh for “bravely declaring the fact that Okinotori is a reef” and called him a member of the Cabinet who has stood firm on “not selling out Taiwan,” comparing him to Liu Mingchuan (劉銘傳).
Liu was a governor of Taiwan in the Qing Dynasty; Hsu did not elaborate on why she compared Yeh to Liu.
The KMT caucus said that if the government allows Tokyo to claim the 200-nautical-mile EEZ near Okinotori, that would mean that fishermen from the nation’s east coast would enter waters with overlapping claims as soon as they went fishing.
“How could the fishermen of eastern Taiwan survive and how could the country’s fishermen’s rights be guarded this way?” it asked.
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