SUAO, Taiwan: Dozens of Taiwanese fishing boats Monday set sail for disputed East China Sea islands that are also claimed by China and Japan and have sent tensions between the two Asian powers soaring.
Taiwan’s coastguard sent out at least 10 patrol boats alongside the more than 60 fishing vessels, with some of the patrol ships carrying fully armed elite coastguard personnel.
“We’ll do everything to protect our fishermen. We do not rule out using force to fight back if Japan were to do so,” Wang Chin-wang, head of the Coast Guard Administration, said in parliament.
The fishermen aim to highlight Taiwan’s claim over the uninhabited islands — known as Diaoyu in China but Senkaku in Japan — which lie 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the Okinawan capital of Naha and 200 kilometers from Taiwan.
The islands, which are administered by Japan, lie on vital shipping lanes and are believed to be located near potentially rich gas fields.
The 61 fishing boats flying Taiwan flags and brandishing demonstration signs left Suao, a port in northeast Taiwan, at 0700 GMT. The 300 fishermen and 60 reporters aboard are expected to arrive around dawn on Tuesday.
Once there, the vessels plan to sail inside Japan’s 12-nautical-mile territorial zone surrounding the islands.
The boats carried signs written in Chinese characters reading “Diaoyutai belongs to Taiwan” and “Fighting for fishing rights for survival.”
Amid protests against Japan, which earlier this month bought some of the disputed islands, Tokyo plans to send a special envoy to Taiwan on Tuesday, the foreign ministry in Taipei said.
The Suao Fishermen Association, which organized the flotilla, said it hopes more boats will join the mission.
“I’m certain there will be more based at other fishing ports to join us,” Lin Cheng-an, a spokesman, told AFP.
Chen Chun-sheng, the head of the Suao association, said at the weekend: “Diaoyutai has been our traditional fishing ground for centuries. We pledge to use our lives to protect it or we’d disgrace our ancestors.”
On Sunday, more than 1,000 slogan-chanting Taiwanese activists and their supporters rallied outside the de facto Japanese embassy in Taipei, calling for a boycott of Japanese goods.
Taiwan has recalled its de facto envoy to Tokyo and there have been mass protests in China over the island row.
Taiwan flotilla heads for disputed islands
