Japan Arrests Chinese Fishing Boat Captain Amid China Protests

Japan Arrests Chinese Fishing Boat Captain Amid China Protests

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Japan said it arrested the captain of a Chinese fishing boat for colliding with one of its Coast Guard vessels near a chain of islands claimed by both countries. China lodged a formal complaint demanding the captain’s release.

“The vessel was illegally fishing in Japanese territorial waters around the islands,” Chief Cabinet SecretarCabinet y Yoshito Sengoku told reporters today in Tokyo, adding that the captain struck the Japanese patrol boat after coast guard warnings. “We will address the issue rigorously according to our laws.”

The incident took place yesterday in the East China Sea near islands known as Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese. Sovereignty over the area, which is close to gas fields and a shipping lane, would give the holder rights to undersea oil reserves.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao yesterday called in Japan’s Ambassador Uichiro Niwa and issued a formal diplomatic protest. China’s foreign ministry said in a statement today that China’s ambassador to Japan called on the Japanese government to immediately release the detained crew to avoid further escalation.

“Hopes were expressed by both sides to not escalate the issue at the ambassador’s meeting,” Sengoku said. “We need to respond calmly so the issue doesn’t heat up domestically.”

China has several territorial disputes with its neighbors that occasionally spark a volley of diplomatic protests. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in July protested U.S. support for resolving rival claims to the oil- and gas-rich South China Sea through a multinational dialogue. China and India have rival claims along their border, which erupted into a war in 1962.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu yesterday said Japan should stop its “so-called ‘enforcement activities” in an area that has been “Chinese territory since ancient times.” Sengoku disputed that today.

“As far as Japan is concerned, there no territorial issue over the Senkaku islands,” he said.

--Takashi Hirokawa, Michael Forsythe. With assistance from Sachiko Sakamaki in Tokyo. Editors: John Brinsley, Patrick Harrington.

To contact Bloomberg News staff on this story: Takashi Hirokawa in Tokyo at thirokawa@bloomberg.net; Michael Forsythe in Beijing at mforsythe@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Austin at billaustin@bloomberg.net

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