China

Japan 'must make wise resolution'

By Bao Daozu (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-13 08:14

Stern warning for Tokyo against misjudgment over Diaoyu Islands

BEIJING - The Japanese ambassador was summoned in the early hours of Sunday by State Councilor Dai Bingguo who urged Tokyo to make a "wise political resolution" and release the detained Chinese fishermen and their boat immediately.

Dai, the highest-ranking Chinese official to protest so far over the arrest of the boat's captain, the detention of the crew and seizure of the vessel, warned Japan against misjudgment, and "expressed the Chinese government's grave concerns (over the incident)", according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

Japanese Ambassador Uichiro Niwa said he would report the Chinese position to his government, according to the statement.

In a sign of the growing tension between the two countries, this was the fourth time Beijing had summoned the Japanese ambassador since the seizure of the trawler by the Japan Coast Guard in waters off China's Diaoyu Islands last Tuesday.

Japan's Kyodo News Agency called it an "unusual" and "rare" move to exert pressure on Tokyo.

Meanwhile, Japan on Sunday morning towed the Chinese fishing boat - with members of the Japan Coast Guard on board and a Japanese vessel closely following - to an area near Ishigaki island in Okinawa prefecture to reenact the circumstances when the trawler reportedly collided with two Japanese patrol ships.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said on Sunday that "China is firmly opposed to any kind of investigation by the Japanese side on the illegally detained Chinese trawler".

Jiang reiterated that such behavior is "illegal, invalid and futile" and stressed that the "unconditional and immediate release of the detained Chinese citizens was the only way to settle the dispute".

The dispute has escalated since the Chinese trawler was intercepted, followed by the arrest of the Chinese captain on suspicion, according to the Japanese, of obstructing officers on duty.

A Japanese court in Ishigaki on Friday allowed prosecutors to keep the captain in custody until Sept 19 before deciding whether to press charges against him despite China's strong opposition.

In response, China announced on Friday that it would postpone talks scheduled earlier with Japan on the East China Sea issue. The talks, scheduled for mid-September, would have been the second governmental meeting over territorial disputes in that area.

"Japan will reap as it has sown, if it continues to act recklessly," Jiang said on Friday, without further elaboration.

An official in the Japanese prime minister's office said it was "regrettable that a postponement (of the talks) was announced unilaterally," the Kyodo News Agency reported. And the Japanese government "conveyed the message to Beijing through diplomatic channels on Saturday," according to an official from the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

"The deep concern of the Chinese government has reached an unprecedented level, after Dai summoned the Japanese ambassador," said Huo Jiangang, an expert on Japan studies at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations. "It sent a clear signal that China takes the incident seriously."

The China-Japan relationship will "deteriorate if the handling of the incident is prolonged and inappropriate", said Huo.

However, Gao Hong, an expert on Japan studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was optimistic that Japan would ultimately take a step back. "The inexperienced government of the Democratic Party of Japan will gradually learn that it is important to maintain a stable and healthy relationship with China," Gao said.

Xinhua, AP and AFP contributed to this story.

China Daily

(China Daily 09/13/2010 page1)