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Taiwan disputes Japan's right to detain fishing boat near Okinotori

ROC Central News Agency

2016/04/25 22:03:46

Taipei, April 25 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou said Monday Japan's detention of a Taiwanese fishing boat in a disputed area of the Pacific was unacceptable, while the family of detained captain Pan Chien-peng (潘建鵬) has prepared NT$1.7 million (US$52,527) as a "security deposit" to seek his early release.

The "Tung Sheng Chi No. 16" from Pingtung County's Liuchiu Township was detained by Japanese coast guard personnel in waters 150 nautical miles off Japan's Okinotori coral reefs -- the total size of which is just 9 square meters or as large as two table-tennis tables -- early Monday.

At a national security meeting, Ma said there is a great deal of controversy over whether these two reefs fit the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) definition of an island that is inhabitable and can sustain an economic life and thus whose owner can claim an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles.

Before the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf determines the legal status of the Okinotori coral reefs that lie 1,007 nautical miles from Eluanpi, the southern tip of Taiwan, "Japan should respect the rights of Taiwan and other countries to navigate and fish in those waters," said Ma.

Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has demanded that Japan immediately release the boat and the captain, who had been taken on board a Japanese vessel and had called his father in Pingtung to help chip in enough money to arrange for his release by noon Tuesday.

According to captain Pan's father, Pan Chung-chiu (潘忠秋), if they don't pay the security deposit by Tuesday noon, the Japanese threatened to take his son by helicopter and plane to Tokyo while the fishing boat will be towed there to stand trial, in which case they are very likely to face a fine of NT$8 million.

Tsai Pao-hsing (蔡寶興), director general of the Liuchiu Fishermen's Association, said if the government cannot secure the release of the crew and boat by late Monday, Pan Chung-chiu will send the money to Taiwan's representative office in Tokyo from which the money will be paid to the Japanese Tuesday morning.

Tsai had earlier said one of the Chinese crew members on the fishing boat was suffering an asthma attack and he urged Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration to send a vessel to rescue the patient if Japan turns down the government's request to free the boat and crew.

If the fisherman's family pays a security deposit to the Japanese authorities, that would amount to a "guilty plea" which means Taiwan has acknowledged Japan's claim to the 200-nautical-mile economic zone, he said. "That would be an awful thing for Taiwanese fishermen, who will no longer be able to fish there," he said. (Kuo Chih-hsuan, Claudia Liu and S.C. Chang)

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