Diaoyutais: Ma rocking the boat?
By Paul Lin 林保華
According to reports in the Taiwanese media, a group leaving Taiwan in the early hours of Jan. 24 for the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, where they intended to declare Taiwan’s sovereignty over the islands, were escorted by Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) ships for the whole journey.
According to the CGA report, “while en route, they [coast guard ships] encountered interference from official Japanese ships, which ended with the two sides firing water cannons at each other. In addition, our coast guard vessels encountered official Chinese ships in the waters around the Diaoyutais for the first time. To avoid concerns that the two sides cooperate in the protection of the Diaoyutais, they were forcefully expelled.”
The Chinese ocean surveillance ships did not leave the area, so while Taiwan’s coast guard vessels and the Japanese ships where pounding each other with water cannons, they sat behind the Taiwanese ships as support.
