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Updated Wednesday, September 16, 2009 9:26 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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The Tiaoyutais: Deja vu again and again

Taipei and Tokyo have held 14 rounds of negotiations on fishing disputes since 1996. No agreement has been reached, however.

Taipei may try to ask Tokyo to come to the negotiating table again, but the chances are that the Japanese who take Taiwan for granted will not make any compromise, though they awarded fishing rights to the prefecture of Taihoku (Taipei), which included Danshui, Keelung and the present-day county of Yilan, while they were ruling Taiwan. Suao is the largest fishing port in the northeastern Taiwan county. The Japanese high court in Tokyo gave that right to the prefecture of Taihoku after reviewing its dispute with the prefecture of Okinawa.

Japan annexed the kingdom of the Ryukyus, which was a vassal state of the Qing Chinese Empire, and turned it into the prefecture of Okinawa in the nineteenth century. The Qing court in Beijing contested it, and a conference was held where an agreement was signed. Under the agreement, the islands of the Ryukyu group north of Okinawa would belong to Japan and those south of that island to China. The agreement was not ratified, and the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1894. China ceded Taiwan to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. But Qing China and the Republic of China have never officially recognized the end of its suzerain-vassal relationship with the Ryukyus.

One thing has to be made clear. The government of the Republic of China did not acknowledge the return of the Ryukyu Islands, of which the Tiaoyutais are a minuscule part, to Japanese sovereignty in 1969. The United States occupied the Ryukyus in May 1945. It continued to occupy the island chain and keep a huge military base on Okinawa. The Americans kept the non-occupied Tiaoyutais for target shooting purposes. The county of Yilan claims jurisdiction of the islets.

We urge the government to appeal to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to arbitrate. Whether the court will intervene is unknown, but Taipei has to try. If we can persuade Beijing to join in the appeal, the court in The Hague may intervene.

That does not mean Taiwan will be able to protect its fishing rights over the Tiaoyutai Islands. But try we must. If we don't, Japan will continue to bully into submission our fishermen, who rely on fishing off the island group for their livelihoods. We should also shelve the dispute of sovereignty to start jointly developing the undersea oil resources of the Tiaoyutais.

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Comments

September 16, 2009 jaapdenha55@

The ICJ has much more important cases lined up than this!
And in the unlikely event that Taiwan and China ever succeed in this kind of appeal, newspaper headlines in my country (Holland) will read:

"Verdict in Beijing/Taipei case of anti-Japanese sentiment in favor of Japan and judged as attempt to stoke Chinese nationalism"

Maar jullie kunnen gerust blijven dromen....

September 17, 2009 ludahai_twn@

Taiwan has no access to the ICJ as it is not a UN member. Besides, Taiwan needs the ICJ to rule on its status far more than on the Diaoyutai islets.

Frankly, fishing boat operators know the situation. They are unnecessarily causing trouble when it should be up to the country's diplomats to press Taiwan's legitimate claims in the islets.

September 19, 2009 jenaito@

The ROC (Taiwan) Navy should start armed naval patrol of Taioyutai islets and begin detaining encroaching Japanese ships. With 75 heavy warships, 20 submarines and 400 navy missile boats, the ROC can easily defend her territory.

September 19, 2009 hold_hand@

ludahai_twn@ wrote:
Taiwan has no access to the ICJ as it is not a UN member. Besides, Taiwan needs the ICJ to rule on its status far more than on the Diaoyutai islets.

Frankly, fishing boat operators know the situation. They are unnecessarily causing trouble when it should be up to the country's diplomats to press Taiwan's legitimate claims in the islets.

Hey there, although Taiwan is not a member of the ICJ because it is not considered a sovereign state (ICJ charter #34), but according to ICJ#93 II, if given the advice of the security council, it could be a member. So you get China's approval, you can take this to court.

September 22, 2009 christowll@

In the Treaty of Peace and Friendship signed by China and Japan in 1972, Deng Xiaoping had agreed to shelve the issue in and was quoted as follows:

"It is true that the two sides maintain different views on this question...It does not matter if this question is shelved for some time, say, ten years. Our generation is not wise enough to find common language on this question. Our next generation will certainly be wiser. They will certainly find a solution acceptable to all."

That "wiser next generation" Deng mentioned definitely does not seem to reside in Taiwan.