Japan frees Chinese fishing captain

24 Sep 2010, 4:49 pm   -   Source: SBS Staff, AFP
1 Comments
Share This
+ Comment
1
Protesters burn a Japanese war-time flag in Hong Kong last week. (AFP)

Protesters burn a Japanese war-time flag in Hong Kong last week. (AFP)

Japan has freed the trawler of a Chinese fishing vessel who was arrested after his vessel collided with two Japanese Coast Guard vessels in disputed waters.

RELATED

There are breaking reports that Japan has freed the captain of a Chinese fishing vessel who was arrested after his vessel collided with two Japan Coast Guard vessels in disputed waters over two weeks ago.

Since the collision, relations had deteriorated markedly between the East Asian giants.
  
"The Public Prosecutors Office today released the captain while suspending the decision on his charges," news agency NHK said. "The Chinese captain will be sent back to China."

China had summoned the Japanese ambassador several times since Japan boarded the vessel and arrested the crew members on board. On the sidelines of a UN summit, the pair refused to hold talks. And yesterday, China was forced to deny reports that it had banned the export of technology-critical rare earth metals to its major trading partner.

After the decision, Nippon TV quoted the prosecutors office as saying: "We have decided that keeping him in detention isn't worth it, considering its effect on the public and the future of Japan-China relations."

East Asia Correspondent for Canada's Globe newspaper, Mark MacKinnon, called it a 'stunning climbdown' in his twitter feed.

"The message in Asia is that China gets is what China wants. Or else", he wrote.

The incident started when Japan's 1,300-ton patrol boat Yonakuni ordered the trawler to cease operations in disputed waters around a string of five small islands - known as Senkaku in Japan, Diaoyu in China, and Diaoyutai in Taiwan - which lies between Japan's far-southern Okinawa island and Taiwan.

The territory is long disputed.



 

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Your Comments

English converstion school manager

Jack - from Tokyo, 2 years ago

Japan has caved in to Chinese demands. That would seem normal for the Japanese since they rarely like confrontation nowadays. There will be a low whisper among some Japanese who are feeling somewhat betrayed by the weaknes of the government on many fronts. Some say that China has Japan by the throat since so much is relied on withheavy trade of sorts coming and going out of China. Heavy investments in factories making things cheaper for Japanese companies. China has used the squeeze technique.

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.