Taiwan summoned Japan’s representative yesterday to protest its seizure of a Taiwanese fishing boat in an area where Tokyo claims exclusive rights, while Taipei is sending two vessels — one from the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and the other from the Council of Agriculture — to the waters around the disputed atoll to defend the rights of the nation’s fishermen.
The 50-tonne Tung Sheng Chi 16 fishing vessel was chased for hours by a Japanese vessel and seized earlier this week, about 150 nautical miles (277.8km) from Okinotori atoll, which is administered by Japan.
The seizure of the fishing boat prompted protest from Taipei, which said Japan had no authority over the area and demanded the release of the ship and 10 crew.
Photo: CNA
They were later freed, but tensions remained.
The release came only after the ship’s owner paid a “deposit” of ￥6 million (US$54,000) demanded by Japanese authorities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) expressed the nation’s displeasure to Japanese Representative to Taiwan Mikio Numata.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of the Coast Guard
“We told them that we have never recognized the exclusive economic zone [EEZ] around Okinotorishima and they had no right to seize the fishing boat,” Lin told reporters.
Okinotori is an uninhabited atoll in the Philippine Sea that is mostly submerged at low tide.
The EEZ claim has also been rejected by China and South Korea, although neither country has made its own claim.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
As a show of force, the CGA said that Taiwan would tomorrow dispatch two patrol ships to the area considered high seas by Taiwan near the Japanese-controlled atoll in the western Pacific to protect Taiwanese fishermen operating in the area.
The Legislative Yuan yesterday issued a statement, endorsed by all party caucuses, condemning Japan’s confiscation of the boat and Tokyo’s demand for a security deposit.
Announced by Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全), the statement read: “We are here to express our strong denunciation and protest against the Japan Coast Guard’s seizure of Taiwanese fishing boat Tung Sheng Chi No. 16, handcuffing our fishermen, stripping them for examination and usurping NT$1.7 million [US$52,662] as a security deposit in the high seas, which violated human rights, fishing rights and rights to sail in international waters and run afoul of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that guarantees the freedom of the high seas.”
According to Article 121 of the convention, an island is a “naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide,” but the Okinotori atoll, which is only 9m2, is a “rock which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of its own” and therefore does not have an exclusive economic zone or continental shelf, the statement said.
The legislature said it is lodging “serious condemnation and protest” against Tokyo’s alleged breach of the international convention, “arbitrary expansion of its EEZ” and “seizure of our boat,” which are “bullying acts” that have damaged the long-term friendship of the two nations.
Separately, Premier Simon Chang (張善政) asked the Japanese government not to view Taiwan as an “easy target,” saying that South Korean fishing boats were not confiscated in similar situations.
“We will definitely not accept being treated as an easy target,” the premier said. “Taiwanese are friendly toward Japan and Japan should not make our people feel that we are ‘kissing cold butt with a hot face.’”
Additional reporting by Alison Hsiao and CNA
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE TRAINING: The ministry said 87.5 percent of the apprehended Chinese agents were reported by service members they tried to lure into becoming spies Taiwanese organized crime, illegal money lenders, temples and civic groups are complicit in Beijing’s infiltration of the armed forces, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a report yesterday. Retired service members who had been turned to Beijing’s cause mainly relied on those channels to infiltrate the Taiwanese military, according to the report to be submitted to lawmakers ahead of tomorrow’s hearing on Chinese espionage in the military. Chinese intelligence typically used blackmail, Internet-based communications, bribery or debts to loan sharks to leverage active service personnel to do its bidding, it said. China’s main goals are to collect intelligence, and develop a
RSS