1.47 PM Friday, 29 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:56 06:10 12:26 15:53 18:37 19:52
29 March 2024

China, Japan boat row intensifies

Published
By AFP

China kept up the pressure on Tokyo over a Chinese fishing vessel seized in disputed waters, warning Japan on Sunday to make a "wise" decision on the fate of the boat and its detained crew.

China called Japan's ambassador in for the fourth time in the spat, which began on Tuesday when a Chinese trawler and two Japanese coast guard vessels collided near an island chain in the East China Sea claimed by both sides.

Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo summoned Ambassador Uichiro Niwa in the early hours of Sunday to warn Japan must make a "wise political decisions" and release the trawler and its crew.

"Dai solemnly expressed the Chinese government's grave concerns and its serious and just position," China's foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency described Dai - the government's senior foreign policy official - as the highest-ranking Chinese official to weigh in on the affair yet.

The row escalated on Saturday when a Chinese vessel confronted two Japanese survey vessels at sea, and Beijing called off planned talks with Tokyo over the East China Sea in protest.

They had been scheduled to hold discussions later this month on issues relating to the East China Sea.

Beijing has warned Tokyo of a "serious impact" on ties if the trawler and its crew are not released.

Tokyo suspects the trawler captain deliberately rammed the two Japanese vessels near the disputed island chain in Tuesday's incident. Four Japanese patrol boats later pursued and seized the Chinese trawler.

The uninhabited islands - known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China - lie between Japan's Okinawa island and Taiwan. They are claimed by Tokyo, Beijing and Taipei and are frequently the focus of regional tensions.

There are four controversial Chinese gas fields in the sea that Japan says extend into its own exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Japanese authorities on Sunday towed the Chinese boat - with all 14 Chinese fisherman aboard - to seas near Ishigaki island off Okinawa to recreate the situation at the time of the collision, Xinhua said.

China said Thursday that a Chinese "law enforcement" ship had been sent to the area to "protect" its fishermen there.

On Saturday, the Japanese coast guard said the ship approached two of its survey vessels and ordered them to cease operations. It said Japan lodged a diplomatic complaint over the incident, and that the Japanese ships continued their work.

The fishing boat's captain, 41-year-old Zhan Qixiong, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of obstructing officers on duty -- a charge that carries a maximum sentence of three years' imprisonment. Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Friday urged China to handle the issue "calmly  and carefully", saying: "We are just acting in accordance with the law."