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Japan releases Chinese boat captain
TOKYO, Sept 24: Japan on Saturday morning released a Chinese fishing boat captain involved in a collision near disputed islands, following intense pressure from China in the worst spat between the Asian neighbours in years.
The move will likely ease the escalating tensions sparked when Japan arrested the captain earlier this month after his trawler collided with two Japanese patrol boats near islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries.
Beijing suspended ministerial-level dialogue with Tokyo and postponed talks on developing disputed undersea gas fields. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao earlier this week sternly threatened “further action” against Japan if it did not immediately release the captain.
On Thursday, Beijing said it was investigating four Japanese suspected of illegally filming military targets and entering a military zone without authorization. Also, there were reports China had suspended Japan-bound shipments of rare earth metals critical in advanced manufacturing.
A day later, prosecutors announced they would release him. He was let go early on Saturday, according to a police official in the small town of Ishigaki, where he was being held.
The Chinese captain was due to fly directly back to China via charter jet.
The captain’s arrest, and the territorial dispute behind it, stirred nationalistic sentiment in China and Japan and threatened to undermine business ties between their intertwined economies — the world’s second — and third-largest.
The US praised Japan’s decision to release the captain. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Friday that the US hopes the decision will ease tensions between the two longtime Asian rivals.
This is “how mature states resolve these things, through diplomacy,” Crowley said. He says the United States continues to support freedom of navigation in Asia.
Earlier, prosecutors in Okinawa, southern Japan, where the 41-year-old captain, Zhan Qixiong, was in custody for more than two weeks, said they would let him go partly because they did not perceive any premeditated intent to damage the Japanese coast guard boats — but also for diplomatic reasons.
“We have decided that further investigation while keeping the captain in custody would not be appropriate, considering the impact on the people of our country, as well as the Japan-China relations in the future,” said Toru Suzuki of the Naha, Okinawa, prosecutors office.
Authorities in Okinawa also said they wouldn’t officially close the case — leaving room for some ambiguity that would allow both countries to save face.
“The Japanese government had to balance the Japanese people’s feelings about the territorial issue and those of China and Taiwan and seek a win-win scenario which is to be ambiguous,” said Takehiko Yamamoto, an international politics professor at Waseda University in Tokyo.
But others, including Tokyo’s outspoken governor, Shintaro Ishihara, said Japan had caved in to Chinese pressure. “The government made an incredibly wrong decision in this case,” he said.
Comments left on popular Japanese online communities were largely critical of the move.
Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China would send a charter flight back to bring him home.
“I reiterate that what Japan did to the Chinese boat captain in its so-called judicial proceedings were illegal and invalid,” Jiang said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website.
Zhan was arrested on Sept 8 after the collision off the uninhabited chain of islands call Diaoyu or Diaoyutai in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese. Located 120 miles east of Taiwan, the islands are controlled by Japan, but also claimed by Taiwan and China.
Prosecutors had detained and questioned the captain while they decided whether to press charges. His 14-member crew and ship were returned to China.
At a regular press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said that Tokyo had no input on the prosecutors’ decision, and that they respected it as such.
But he also said he hoped that the two countries could quickly put the incident behind them and work at repairing relations.
“It is a fact that Japan-China relations had the potential, and were showing indications, of worsening over this issue,” he said.
Washington has urged China to resolve separate, long-running territorial disputes with its Southeast Asian neighbours involving the Spratleys and other islands in the South China Sea. President Barack Obama was expected to sign a communique on the issue with Southeast Asian leaders later Friday in New York. Beijing has accused Washington of interfering in an Asian issue.
Liu Jiangyong, a professor with Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, called the release a “wise decision” by the Japanese government that could even lead to stronger ties.
“The decision may become a turning point for the improvement of relations between the countries, and both sides should grasp the opportunity to get relations back to the correct track,” Liu said.
TOKYO, Sept 24: Japan on Saturday morning released a Chinese fishing boat captain involved in a collision near disputed islands, following intense pressure from China in the worst spat between the Asian neighbours in years.
The move will likely ease the escalating tensions sparked when Japan arrested the captain earlier this month after his trawler collided with two Japanese patrol boats near islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries.
Beijing suspended ministerial-level dialogue with Tokyo and postponed talks on developing disputed undersea gas fields. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao earlier this week sternly threatened “further action” against Japan if it did not immediately release the captain.
On Thursday, Beijing said it was investigating four Japanese suspected of illegally filming military targets and entering a military zone without authorization. Also, there were reports China had suspended Japan-bound shipments of rare earth metals critical in advanced manufacturing.
A day later, prosecutors announced they would release him. He was let go early on Saturday, according to a police official in the small town of Ishigaki, where he was being held.
The Chinese captain was due to fly directly back to China via charter jet.
The captain’s arrest, and the territorial dispute behind it, stirred nationalistic sentiment in China and Japan and threatened to undermine business ties between their intertwined economies — the world’s second — and third-largest.
The US praised Japan’s decision to release the captain. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Friday that the US hopes the decision will ease tensions between the two longtime Asian rivals.
This is “how mature states resolve these things, through diplomacy,” Crowley said. He says the United States continues to support freedom of navigation in Asia.
Earlier, prosecutors in Okinawa, southern Japan, where the 41-year-old captain, Zhan Qixiong, was in custody for more than two weeks, said they would let him go partly because they did not perceive any premeditated intent to damage the Japanese coast guard boats — but also for diplomatic reasons.
“We have decided that further investigation while keeping the captain in custody would not be appropriate, considering the impact on the people of our country, as well as the Japan-China relations in the future,” said Toru Suzuki of the Naha, Okinawa, prosecutors office.
Authorities in Okinawa also said they wouldn’t officially close the case — leaving room for some ambiguity that would allow both countries to save face.
“The Japanese government had to balance the Japanese people’s feelings about the territorial issue and those of China and Taiwan and seek a win-win scenario which is to be ambiguous,” said Takehiko Yamamoto, an international politics professor at Waseda University in Tokyo.
But others, including Tokyo’s outspoken governor, Shintaro Ishihara, said Japan had caved in to Chinese pressure. “The government made an incredibly wrong decision in this case,” he said.
Comments left on popular Japanese online communities were largely critical of the move.
Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China would send a charter flight back to bring him home.
“I reiterate that what Japan did to the Chinese boat captain in its so-called judicial proceedings were illegal and invalid,” Jiang said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website.
Zhan was arrested on Sept 8 after the collision off the uninhabited chain of islands call Diaoyu or Diaoyutai in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese. Located 120 miles east of Taiwan, the islands are controlled by Japan, but also claimed by Taiwan and China.
Prosecutors had detained and questioned the captain while they decided whether to press charges. His 14-member crew and ship were returned to China.
At a regular press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said that Tokyo had no input on the prosecutors’ decision, and that they respected it as such.
But he also said he hoped that the two countries could quickly put the incident behind them and work at repairing relations.
“It is a fact that Japan-China relations had the potential, and were showing indications, of worsening over this issue,” he said.
Washington has urged China to resolve separate, long-running territorial disputes with its Southeast Asian neighbours involving the Spratleys and other islands in the South China Sea. President Barack Obama was expected to sign a communique on the issue with Southeast Asian leaders later Friday in New York. Beijing has accused Washington of interfering in an Asian issue.
Liu Jiangyong, a professor with Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, called the release a “wise decision” by the Japanese government that could even lead to stronger ties.
“The decision may become a turning point for the improvement of relations between the countries, and both sides should grasp the opportunity to get relations back to the correct track,” Liu said.
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