Taiwan, Hong Kong activists team up on trip to Tiaoyutais

ROC Central News Agency

2012/08/12 21:16:09

Taipei, Aug. 12 (CNA) A group of activists set off from Hong Kong Sunday evening to rendezvous with Taiwanese activists off northeastern Taiwan before sailing to the disputed Tiaoyutai Islands Aug. 14 to make separate territorial claims, an activist said Sunday.

The Hong Kong group left Tsim Sha Tsui Pier at noon Sunday and arrived in Sai Kung in Hong Kong's New Territories in the afternoon, according to the activist of the Chung Hwa Baodiao Alliance of Taiwan.

The Hong Kong group comprises eight activists, four crewmen and two journalists, according to the Hong Kong-based Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands.

Five or six Taiwanese activists will rendezvous with the Hong Kong group at sea near Pengjia Islet off Taiwan's northernmost tip on Aug. 14 and the two groups will sail to the Tiaoyutais, the alliance said.

Before they set off, the Hong Kong activists said they wanted to reach the Tiaoyutais with the Taiwanese and Chinese activists ahead of a group of Japanese activists who are also planning to go there.

On July 4 this year, Huang Hsi-lin, chief executive director of the Taiwanese alliance, sailed to the Tiaoyutais from Shenao Port in New Taipei with eight other people to support Taiwan's claim of sovereignty over the islands.

Japanese coast guard officers aboard three boats in the area requested to board and inspect the Taiwanese vessel but were prevented from doing so by Taiwan's coast guard boats, which escorted the activists to leave the area some 30 minutes after the confrontation.

The Tiaoyutai Islands, known as the Diaoyutai Islands in China and the Senkaku Islands in Japan, lie about 100 nautical miles northeast of Taiwan in the East China Sea. The island group is also claimed by China and Japan.

(By Stanley Cheung, Claudia Liu and Jamie Wang)
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