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Taiwan deploys patrol ships after fishing vessel seized by Japan

The Taiwanese government yesterday sent two patrol ships to waters surrounding a Japanese atoll, as tensions between Tokyo and Taipei spiked following the seizure of one of the island’s fishing boats there.

The Taiwanese government yesterday sent two patrol ships to waters surrounding a Japanese atoll, as tensions between Tokyo and Taipei spiked following the seizure of one of the island’s fishing boats there.

The detention of the Tung Sheng Chi 16 near Okinotori-shima last week angered Taiwanese officials, who say Tokyo has no authority over the area.

A Taiwanese coast guard ship and another from the Council of Agriculture departed from the southern port of Kaoshiung yesterday.

“Japan has no right to ban our fishing boats from the area,” said Taiwan’s coast guard administration in a statement. “The government will resolutely defend the rights and freedom of our fishermen in international waters.”

The mission will last for one to three months. Between 100 and 200 Taiwanese boats fish in the waters around Okinotori-shima each year.

Japan says it has exclusive rights in the 200-nautical-mile area — as allowed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — surrounding the uninhabited atoll in the Philippine Sea.

But Taiwan, China and South Korea reject the Japanese claim.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said it also plans to deploy warships to “appropriate waters” but spokesman David Lo declined to elaborate.

The maritime row is straining normally friendly relations between Taipei and Tokyo. It follows a stand-off more than three years ago over a chain of islands in the East China Sea, when coastguard vessels from both sides attacked each other with water cannons.

The islands — known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese — are controlled by Japan but claimed by both China and Taiwan. But, in 2013, Japan and Taiwan forged a fisheries agreement covering the waters off the island chain. AFP

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