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Updated Friday, June 13, 2008 0:00 am TWN, By Joe Hung, Special to The China Post

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Tiaoyutai, Senkaku or Diaoyutai?

Taiwan’s claim of sovereignty is on a much more solid ground. The Ryukyus was a kingdom, which became a vassal state of China’s in 1372. The Emperor Hong-wu of the Ming dynasty proclaimed China’s suzerainty over the tiny but prosperous kingdom by sending an imperial commissioner to perform the first investiture of the king. During the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), no less than eight investitures were held, the last one in 1866. The Japanese claimed suzerainty after Shimazu Iehisa, a daimyo of Kagoshima, invaded the Ryukyus and took its king hostage in 1609. The kingdom had since remained a vassal to its two big neighbors until Japan annexed it as a prefecture of Okinawa in 1879. China contended, and negotiations were held in Beijing to solve the dispute. An agreement was eventually signed to halve the island chain, with the northern half assigned to Japan and the southern half to China. But the agreement was not ratified by the Qing court, and the case was closed with the cession of Taiwan to Japan in 1895 following the Sino-Japanese war.

There then occurred a dispute between Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule and Okinawa over the fishing rights off the Senkakus. It was finally decided in favor of the prefecture of Taihoku (Taipei) by the Japanese high court in Tokyo. The United States occupied the Ryukyus after bloody battles toward the end of the Second World War. After the war, Taiwan was restored to the Republic of China in 1945, with the government fully convinced that the Senkakus was returned to its sovereignty as the Tiaoyutais as well. The American occupation was terminated in 1972 and Okinawa was restored to Japanese sovereignty. Tokyo believes the Senkaku Islands were part of the territory returned. The People’s Republic of China, proclaimed in 1949 to succeed Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China, never gives up sovereignty claim over the Diaoyutais.

Taipei voiced no protest with Tokyo over Monday’s incident, while the National Coast Guard Administration is ready to fine the skipper of the fishing boat for operating too far away from Taiwan. Sports-fishing is permitted within 12 sea miles off Taiwan. The anglers, however, were taken to waters almost 120 miles away. The foreign ministry expressed hopes that talks will be resumed between Taiwan and Japan to settle the question of fishing rights over their overlapping territorial waters. On the other hand, Beijing protested against the incident to Tokyo.

The question of fishing rights is important, of course. It pales, however, before the question of how to develop the undersea oil reserves while crude prices are hovering above US$130 a barrel. One most urgent task facing the foreign ministry is to achieve a modus vivendi among Taiwan, Japan and China to jointly tap the oil reserves under the waters of the Tiaoyutais or Senkakus or Diaoyutais.

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