According to media report Japanese have seized a Chinese trawler which collided with two of their patrol boats as they tried to arrest the vessel for fishing in disputed waters. The trawler skipper is currently under arrest, but it is thought he may soon be released. But there is speculation that increasing concern over China’s military strength in the region and its attempt to control more fishing waters.
China’s foreign ministry comment that the incident was bad in taste, the arrest of the captain is “absurd, illegal and invalid” and warned that it “could have a serious impact on the larger interests of China-Japan relations. Beijing has urged Japan to stop the arrest of Chinese trawlers. The incidents have taken place in the East China Sea near a disputed chain of islands which Japan controls, but which are claimed by both Communist China and Taiwan.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu Tuesday has expressed that the Diaoyu islands and its adjacent islets have been Chinese territory since ancient times. He said that China demand Japanese patrol boats refrain from so-called law enforcement activities in waters off the Diaoyu islands and refrain from actions that would threaten the security of Chinese fishing boats and their crew.
