Diaoyutai Controversy Flares Again

The Diaoyutais and their surrounding islands are unpopulated islands northeast of Taiwan. They reside on the same continental shelf as the island of Taiwan. On May 15, 1972, America handed sovereignty of the Ryukyu islands, which had been under its control since the end of World War II, over to the Japanese. At the same time, it granted Japan administrative rights over the Diaoyutais while acknowledging the controversy over their sovereignty.

At the same time, the governments on both sides of the Taiwan Strait insisted that the Diaoyutais were by geographical, historical, and legal criteria part of Chinese territory. Against this backdrop was born the "Diaoyutai Protection Movement" of the 1970s, led by Taiwanese students studying abroad, which clashed several times with Japan over its claims to sovereignty over the islands. Not only was Taiwan's new president, Ma Ying-jeou, a major activist in the movement at the time, he also wrote his Harvard doctoral dissertation, "Disputes over oily waters: a case study of continental shelf problems and foreign oil investments in the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait," on the subject.

As this title suggests, the Diaoyutai question is not only about sovereignty but also economics.

Not only does Taiwan's fishing industry derive nearly NT$1.5 billion a year from the Diaoyutai area, as early as 1968 both the CPC Corporation and the UN's Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East issued separate reports stating that the area of the East China Sea near the islands might be rich in oil resources. More recent official surveys estimate that there might be as much as 15 billion tons of oil there, making it the largest untapped oilfield in the world. With oil prices at record highs, that fact is sure to gain a lot of interest.

Over the last ten years, the close relations the Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian administrations held with Japan kept them from pushing the controversy over sovereignty over the Diaoyutais. With this incident, however, the official response was stronger. On June 12 the Office of the President issued a four-point bulletin stressing that the Diaoyutais were ROC territory and expressing strong condemnation of Japan. The next day, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan issued a strong statement saying the administration would make its best efforts to solve the situation through diplomacy and legal avenues but in the end would not rule out military action. At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs engaged Japanese officials in negotiations.

As a gesture of goodwill, three days after the incident the Japanese released the detained captain and allowed him to return to Taiwan. They also publicly declared that their patrol boat had operated outside proper procedure and that they were willing to make reparations.

Though the Japanese attitude was notably more low-key than it had been before, their expression of "regret" rather than an outright apology inflamed passions. The anger even reached Taiwan's representative in Japan, Koh Se-kai, who was seen as being overly sympathetic to the Japanese and has permanent residency in Japan. Koh was called to explain himself at the legislature but refused to show up, instead holding a press conference at which he announced his resignation. Grassroots Diaoyutai activist groups took another step forward on June 16, breaking through a Japanese blockade with a boat called the Chuanchiafu under ROC Coast Guard protection. They succeeded in moving within 0.4 nautical miles of the Diaoyutais to declare sovereignty.

Seeing that the situation was heating up, Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda made a special statement on the night of the 16th calling for calm and restraint on both sides so as to avoid disrupting historically friendly relations. President Ma Ying-jeou then called a press conference in which he expressed his agreement that the situation needed to cool down. On June 20, an official from Japan's representative office in Taiwan visited the home of the Lienho's captain and presented a formal letter of apology from the commander of the Japan Coast Guard's 11th Region. With that, the entire incident came to an end.

The question of sovereignty over the Diaoyutais is a thorny one. Will this, the first international diplomatic challenge of the new administration, have an impact on foreign policy, which has long been based around relations with America and Japan? This also comes at a sensitive time when cross-strait relations are thawing and mainland China and Japan have signed an oil exploration agreement for the East China Sea. If in the future mainland China and Japan begin to move into the area around the Diaoyutais, how will Taiwan react? These small islands have a great impact on international relations, and developments demand close attention.