ID :
58967
Tue, 05/05/2009 - 11:43
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/58967
The shortlink copeid
Protest voyage from Taiwan to Senkakus canceled, protester says+
TAIPEI, May 4 Kyodo - A planned protest voyage from Taiwan to the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands has been called off amid pressure from the government, a trip organizer said Monday, just hours before the scheduled departure.
Some 40 pro-China activists who dispute Japan's claims of sovereignty over the
East China Sea islets -- called Diaoyu in China and Tiaoyutai in Taiwan --
scuppered their voyage after the owner of the boat slated for the journey
backed out of an agreement to rent them the vessel, said Huang Hsi-lin, a
municipal council member in Taipei County.
Huang said he has been a key organizer of protest trips to the Senkakus since
at least 2003.
''The boat owner was under tremendous pressure to not go through with renting
the boat to us,'' Huang said by phone, referring to political pressure applied
by Taipei to prevent the trip from coming to fruition.
Huang said the trip had been meant to protest what he said was a recent
increase in the number of Japan Coast Guard vessels patrolling waters near the
Senkakus.
The activists had planned to depart for the islets from Taiwan's northern Suao
Harbor by 11 p.m.
Rich in fish and possibly natural gas resources, the islets represent a
perennial flashpoint in relations between Taiwan and Japan, with the Japan
Coast Guard regularly driving Taiwanese fishing boats from the area.
The issue of access to the Senkakus boiled over last year when a Japanese
patrol boat chased and rammed a Taiwanese fishing vessel near the islets.
In response, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou recalled Taiwan's de facto
ambassador to Japan, while Taiwanese Premier Liu Chao-shiuan threatened Japan
with war should their conflicting sovereignty claims over the Senkakus drag on.
Similarly, China also claims the islets, with proponents of a China-centered
concept of nationhood in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China typically joining forces
to plan annual protest voyages in bids to make landfall on the islets.
But plans for the latest trip came amid Ma's efforts to improve relations with
Japan after the boat collision.
Ma seeks to promote a ''special partnership'' between Taipei and Tokyo, with
new air and tourism links further cementing bilateral ties.
Tokyo has also sought to ratchet down tensions, denying last month a request by
a local mayor in Okinawa Prefecture, under whose local-level administration the
Senkakus fall, to visit the islets, located just 170 kilometers northeast of
Taipei and 410 km west of Okinawa Island.
The Japanese government denied permission for Ishigaki Mayor Nagateru Ohama to
conduct a property tax investigation on the islets, a visit that would surely
have irked Taiwan and China.
For its part, the Hong Kong government, citing safety concerns, thwarted over
the weekend attempts by protesters to voyage to the Senkakus in a protest trip,
prompting some eight Hong Kong activists to travel Monday to Taiwan to join
Huang's group.
China, generally wary of public activism, has not been openly supportive of the
protest trips in the past, and on some occasions obstructed the trips and
banned mainland activists from participating.
(with Matthew Lee in Hong Kong)
==Kyodo
Some 40 pro-China activists who dispute Japan's claims of sovereignty over the
East China Sea islets -- called Diaoyu in China and Tiaoyutai in Taiwan --
scuppered their voyage after the owner of the boat slated for the journey
backed out of an agreement to rent them the vessel, said Huang Hsi-lin, a
municipal council member in Taipei County.
Huang said he has been a key organizer of protest trips to the Senkakus since
at least 2003.
''The boat owner was under tremendous pressure to not go through with renting
the boat to us,'' Huang said by phone, referring to political pressure applied
by Taipei to prevent the trip from coming to fruition.
Huang said the trip had been meant to protest what he said was a recent
increase in the number of Japan Coast Guard vessels patrolling waters near the
Senkakus.
The activists had planned to depart for the islets from Taiwan's northern Suao
Harbor by 11 p.m.
Rich in fish and possibly natural gas resources, the islets represent a
perennial flashpoint in relations between Taiwan and Japan, with the Japan
Coast Guard regularly driving Taiwanese fishing boats from the area.
The issue of access to the Senkakus boiled over last year when a Japanese
patrol boat chased and rammed a Taiwanese fishing vessel near the islets.
In response, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou recalled Taiwan's de facto
ambassador to Japan, while Taiwanese Premier Liu Chao-shiuan threatened Japan
with war should their conflicting sovereignty claims over the Senkakus drag on.
Similarly, China also claims the islets, with proponents of a China-centered
concept of nationhood in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China typically joining forces
to plan annual protest voyages in bids to make landfall on the islets.
But plans for the latest trip came amid Ma's efforts to improve relations with
Japan after the boat collision.
Ma seeks to promote a ''special partnership'' between Taipei and Tokyo, with
new air and tourism links further cementing bilateral ties.
Tokyo has also sought to ratchet down tensions, denying last month a request by
a local mayor in Okinawa Prefecture, under whose local-level administration the
Senkakus fall, to visit the islets, located just 170 kilometers northeast of
Taipei and 410 km west of Okinawa Island.
The Japanese government denied permission for Ishigaki Mayor Nagateru Ohama to
conduct a property tax investigation on the islets, a visit that would surely
have irked Taiwan and China.
For its part, the Hong Kong government, citing safety concerns, thwarted over
the weekend attempts by protesters to voyage to the Senkakus in a protest trip,
prompting some eight Hong Kong activists to travel Monday to Taiwan to join
Huang's group.
China, generally wary of public activism, has not been openly supportive of the
protest trips in the past, and on some occasions obstructed the trips and
banned mainland activists from participating.
(with Matthew Lee in Hong Kong)
==Kyodo