President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday vowed to safeguard the fishing rights of Taiwanese fishermen in international waters and denied Japan’s claim that the Okinotori atoll is an island.
The Presidential Office issued a statement saying that Ma made the pledge during a high-level national security meeting attended by Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Premier Simon Chang (張善政) and top officials from the ministries of foreign affairs and national defense, the Coast Guard Administration and the Council of Agriculture.
The meeting was called to discuss countermeasures to the Japan Coast Guard’s confiscation of the Taiwanese fishing boat, Tung Sheng Chi No. 16, about 150 nautical miles (277.8km) east-southeast of the Okinotori atoll on Monday and its demand for a ¥6 million (US$54,240) “security deposit,” the office said.
Photo: David Chang, EPA
The boat was released, along with its Taiwanese captain and nine Chinese and Indonesian crew members, on Tuesday afternoon after its owner, Pan Chung-chiu (潘忠秋) — the father of its captain, met Tokyo’s demand.
During the meeting, Ma announced the government’s three-part stance on the incident, the office said.
First, based on Article 121 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Okinotori atoll, which has a total area of less than 3 ping (9.9m2), is not an island that can “sustain human habitation or economic life of their own.”
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“Thus, Japan cannot claim a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone [EEZ] around the outcroppings. We will also firmly defend our fishermen’s freedom to operate in the high seas,” the office quoted Ma as saying.
Second, the government is opposed to and does not recognize Japan’s illegal expansion of rights by unilaterally defining the uninhabited rock as an “island,” Ma said, adding that Japan’s seizure of Taiwanese fishermen operating in international waters infringed on their freedom of fishing conferred by Subparagraph 5, Paragraph 1, Article 87 of the UNCLOS.
Third, the government would step up efforts to protect the nation’s fishermen operating near the atoll and safeguard their rights.
The office said Ma also instructed the Executive Yuan to adopt three measures, including a request that all levels of government agencies refer to the atoll as “Okinotori rock” rather than “Okinotori Island.”
The Executive Yuan was also asked to have the foreign ministry and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan to continue negotiations with their Japanese counterparts, while asking the Coast Guard Administration and the Fisheries Agency to put forward concrete measures to protect the nation’s fishermen and carry them out immediately.
About 300 fishermen, mobilized by the National Fishermen’s Association, rallied at noon yesterday outside the Taipei office of the Interchange Association, Japan, with some spraying paint on a map of the Okinotori reefs in protest.
The protest was led by association head Huang Yi-cheng (黃一成) and Pan, while several lawmakers, including Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄), showed up to lend support.
Holding banners and yelling slogans, the fishermen demanded that the Japanese government apologize and that “justice be served” for the seizure of the vessel. They also condemned what they said was Japan’s rude and unreasonable conduct.
The Okinotori reefs are not islands and therefore not entitled to an exclusive economic zone, and Taiwanese fishermen’s rights to operate in international waters must be protected, the protesters said.
Despite the good relationship between Taiwan and Japan, the official from the Japanese representative office was rude in accepting the fishermen’s petition, they said.
Huang said the Japanese official took the letter and turned away without offering an apology, while Chuang said he was also dissatisfied with the envoy’s attitude.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats