An aerial view shows Japan Coast Guard patrol ship and Taiwan’s Coast Guard vessel spraying water at each other near Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 25, 2012.
Dozens of fishing boats and 12 coast guard ships from Taiwan briefly entered waters close to a disputed island chain in the East China Sea, Japan’s Coast Guard said on Tuesday. The Taiwanese fleet, which included fishing boats and armed coast guard vessels, entered the disputed waters on Tuesday, according to the Japanese coast guard.
The comments, from Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun to his Japanese counterpart, were quoted on the Chinese ministry website. Taiwan news agency CNA said that up to 100 fishing boats, escorted by 10 coast guard ships, were making the voyage to assert local fishermen’s rights to operate in the waters.
The islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan. Tension in the region has been high since Japan’s purchase of the islands from their private Japanese owner.
Osamu Fujimura, the Japanese cabinet secretary, said that the coast guard used water cannon and other measures to get the Taiwanese boats to change course. Protests erupted across dozens of Chinese cities, forcing the closure of a number of Japanese businesses and factories as residents railed against anything representative of Japan or its people.
China’s agriculture ministry, for its part, said that close to 200 Chinese boats had been fishing in seas around the disputed islands. Japan’s Vice-Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai arrived in Beijing on Monday for two days of talks.
Relations between Japan and China have hit a new low in recent weeks after the former’s nationalisation of three of the islands, which it bought from a private Japanese landowner.
Dozens of fishing boats and 12 coast guard ships from Taiwan briefly entered waters close to a disputed island chain in the East China Sea, Japan’s Coast Guard said on Tuesday. The Taiwanese fleet, which included fishing boats and armed coast guard vessels, entered the disputed waters on Tuesday, according to the Japanese coast guard.
The comments, from Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun to his Japanese counterpart, were quoted on the Chinese ministry website. Taiwan news agency CNA said that up to 100 fishing boats, escorted by 10 coast guard ships, were making the voyage to assert local fishermen’s rights to operate in the waters.
The islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan. Tension in the region has been high since Japan’s purchase of the islands from their private Japanese owner.
Osamu Fujimura, the Japanese cabinet secretary, said that the coast guard used water cannon and other measures to get the Taiwanese boats to change course. Protests erupted across dozens of Chinese cities, forcing the closure of a number of Japanese businesses and factories as residents railed against anything representative of Japan or its people.
China’s agriculture ministry, for its part, said that close to 200 Chinese boats had been fishing in seas around the disputed islands. Japan’s Vice-Foreign Minister Chikao Kawai arrived in Beijing on Monday for two days of talks.
Relations between Japan and China have hit a new low in recent weeks after the former’s nationalisation of three of the islands, which it bought from a private Japanese landowner.
