Japan yesterday said two Chinese fisheries patrol boats have withdrawn from waters near the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), which are at the center of the worst diplomatic row in years between the Asian giants.
A Japanese coast guard spokeswoman said it had monitored the vessels with radar and that the boats left the area at about dawn yesterday morning. Beijing had sent the boats on Sept. 23 to protect Chinese fishing vessels operating near the disputed islands in the East China Sea.
The move followed Tokyo’s arrest on Sept. 8 of a Chinese trawler captain whose ship collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near the disputed island chain, leading Beijing to cut off all high-level contacts until on Monday.
Japan later released the captain, but the move did little to ease tensions and left Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan open to -domestic attacks from political conservatives claiming he had caved in to Chinese bullying.
However, a brief meeting in Brussels between Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) at an Asia-Europe summit — in which both claimed sovereignty over the islands — nevertheless broke the ice after the almost month-long territorial row.
“During the meeting, we reconfirmed that we will promote our strategic and mutually beneficial relations,” Kan told parliament yesterday, adding that the two premiers also agreed to resume bilateral “high-level” talks.
However, officials in Tokyo took a cautious stance over the movements yesterday of the Chinese boats and refused to be drawn on whether it was a sign of easing tensions.
Meanwhile, Vietnam has asked China for the unconditional release of nine fishermen detained last month near the disputed Paracel Islands, Vietnamese media reported yesterday, raising tension a week before regional defense ministers meet.
Chinese embassy officers in Hanoi told Vietnamese Foreign Ministry officials the sailors had broken the law by fishing with explosives and would be released with their boat only after the captain paid a fine, Vietnamese state media reported.
Vietnamese officials dismissed China’s accusation against the fishermen as “absurd” and said the crew and boat, detained on Sept. 11, had been “operating normally in the seas around the Paracel Islands, which fall under Vietnam’s sovereignty.”
The dispute highlights mounting tension over China’s assertiveness in the potentially oil-rich South China Sea, where China, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan all have com
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