Taiwan disputes Japan’s right to detain Taiwanese fishing boat in the disputed waters around the unmanned atoll Okinotorishima. That’s the word from foreign ministry spokesperson Eleanor Wang on Tuesday.
A Japanese patrol boat chased the Taiwanese fishing boat “Tung Sheng Chi 16” on Sunday some 150 nautical miles off Okinotorishima. The atoll is under Japanese administration. Japanese authorities then seized the boat and its crew.
The foreign ministry said there is controversy over whether the atoll fits the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea definition of an island. The definition says that an island has to be inhabitable and has to be able to sustain economic life. If so, it can claim an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles.
Premier Chang San-cheng said that the atoll is a reef and not an island. Chang said the Taiwanese boat was operating in international waters. He said the Japanese government has no right to detain the boat and crew.
Chang said, “Does anyone know how big 9 square meters is? It’s the size of 3 Japanese tatami mats. How can you call a piece of land the size of 3 tatami mats an island and then extend an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles from a 9 square-meter size piece of land? It’s a no brainer. As a great country in the world, how can Japan do such a thing? It is highly unreasonable.”
The foreign ministry said that Japan should respect the rights of other countries to fish in those waters. Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang explained.
“We believe that before the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf determines the legal status of Okinotorishima, Japan should respect every country including the rights of our country’s fishing boats to navigate and fish in the disputed waters,” said Wang.
Wang said in the past, other Taiwanese fishing boats had been caught by Japanese authorities in the same waters. She said she hopes that no similar incidents will happen again before the legal status of the atoll is finalized.