Fearful of being sidelined in the territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands, Taiwan has chosen to emphasize its claim to the islands rather than seek a fisheries agreement with Japan or cooperation with China.
Sources said the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou will make it clear in negotiations with Japan over the fisheries issue that Taiwan claims ownership of the islands, which it refers to as Diaoyutai. The move is expected to provoke inevitable backlash from Japan, which argues that no territorial dispute exists.
While Japan and Taiwan have held informal negotiations on resuming discussions on a fisheries agreement, the stance now taken by Taiwan likely means that the talks, last held in 2009, will not resume in the near future.
According to sources close to the negotiations, Ma, Foreign Minister David Y.L. Lin and other Cabinet ministers involved in the issue held discussions this month on how to pursue the fisheries negotiations.
The ministers confirmed that Taiwan could maintain its position that the islands were Taiwanese territory and would include wording that a territorial dispute exists over the Senkakus in any document that is compiled for a fisheries agreement.
Such a position runs counter to Japan’s stance that the islands have long been Japanese territory and no dispute exists.
Japanese officials attempted to use fisheries agreements with South Korea and China as a reference point in seeking an agreement with Taiwan. For its part, the Ma administration initially showed a willingness to resume negotiations on the issue, despite protesting when the Japanese government indicated in the summer that it planned to purchase the Senkakus. According to sources, preparations for a resumption of negotiations had progressed with no mention of the territorial dispute.
Taiwanese officials became concerned, however, that if a fisheries agreement were reached they would lose the opportunity to protest the Senkakus issue, and the territorial dispute would end up being an issue between only Japan and China.
A Taiwanese government source said, “Discussions arose within the government over whether fishing rights should be obtained while sacrificing the territorial claims on the islands.”
Ma has also made clear that the territorial issue was important to him, saying in a local television interview, “There will be no fishing rights without sovereignty over the islands.”
There is currently no agreement between Japan and Taiwan over fishing operations in waters near the Senkakus and the Yaeyama islands that lie between the two, despite discussions having been held a total of 16 times since 1996.
The overlap in territorial waters claimed by Japan and Taiwan has also led to frequent cases of Japan Coast Guard ships detaining Taiwanese fishing boats operating near Japanese territorial waters.
In 1971, Taiwan issued a protest statement over the transfer of administrative control of the Senkakus from the United States to Japan when Okinawa was returned to Japanese control, claiming the islands were Taiwanese territory.
However, there have been no major territorial confrontations between Japan and Taiwan since then.
China had called on Taiwan to form a united front against Japan on the Senkakus issue. While Japan had tried to separate Taiwan from China by utilizing the fisheries issue, that strategy appears to have failed.
For the time being, Taiwan is expected to avoid allying itself too closely with either China or Japan on the territorial issue.
The Asahi Shimbun Company