An activist from Hong Kong drowned and another was listed in serious condition Sept.
26 after a standoff with Japanese patrol boats near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the
East China Sea. The drowning death of David Chan, 46, sparked protests in front of
the office of the Japanese Consulate General in Hong Kong in the afternoon.
In Tokyo, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto expressed concern over the possible
diplomatic consequences of the activist's death. "I do not have the optimism to
believe
that it will not have any diplomatic impact," Hashimoto told reporters at his
official
residence.
Chan was given a heart massage by a Maritime Safety Agency rescuer aboard the
protesters' main vessel, the 2,800-ton Kien Hwa No. 2, as it steamed toward an island
with a hospital in Okinawa. However, Chan died at about 2 p.m. The other protester
was air-lifted by an MSA helicopter to a hospital on Ishigaki Island, Okinawa
Prefecture, after developing breathing problems in waters near the islands. The activist
is conscious but in serious condition. The MSA said the two jumped into the sea with
two others and tried to swim closer to the islets during a confrontation between their
chartered cargo ship and several MSA patrol boats.
According to the agency, the four activists leaped into the sea from a rubber dinghy.
The Hong Kong government said five jumped overboard from the cargo ship itself. The
captain of the Kien Hwa No. 2 said the protesters were not happy with his decision
not to allow them to land on the island because of rough seas. When Chan then
proposed swimming near the island, he could not stop him, the captain said. The
captain said he was partly responsible for the activist's death because he knew that
Chan was not a good swimmer and was not correctly wearing his life jacket.
In Tokyo, Japan's top government spokesman expressed condolences over Chan's
death. "We pray that the soul of the person who has died rests in peace," Chief
Cabinet Secretary Seiroku Kajiyama told a press conference.
The government appeared at a loss over how to cope with the rising tensions over the
islands, but stressed that its stance of claiming the islands as Japan's own territory
will
not change. The government has refrained from officially recognizing a lighthouse built
by a Japanese rightist group on one of the disputed islands, but it has not taken any
actions against the group, either, despite strong protests from China. Kajiyama
repeatedly called for calm in dealing with the Senkaku issue and expressed Tokyo's
plea that protests by China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong not heat up. In Hong Kong, no
signs of protest were reported.
Officials at the MSA, which had dispatched more than a dozen patrol boats to prevent
the vessel from reaching the Senkaku Islands, said the chartered freighter twice entered
what Japan claims as territorial waters off the five uninhabited rocky islets, and that
the
protesters later ventured further into the disputed area aboard inflatable dinghies.
The officials also said the freighter, which was carrying 18 protesters, 19 crew and 42
reporters, first entered Japanese-claimed waters at around 1:20 a.m. despite repeated
warnings. According to the officials, the 2,800-ton vessel left the immediate area about
3 1/2 hours later as MSA boats blocked its route to the isles. But the vessel remained
in the area and re-entered the disputed waters after 9 a.m., ignoring several MSA
orders to leave.
Meanwhile, the MSA said, six small boats from Taiwan flying the Taiwanese flag
repeatedly entered the Japanese-claimed waters beginning early Sept. 26, apparently in
concerted action with the Hong Kong group. While playing cat and mouse with MSA
patrol boats for more than half an hour, the agency said, one Taiwanese vessel
managed to come as close as 1 nautical mile to the isles.
The islands, located between Taiwan and Okinawa, are also claimed by China and
Taiwan, which call them the Diaoyu and the Tiaoyutai, respectively. On Sept. 23,
MSA patrol boats expelled five vessels with protesters from Taiwan and Hong Kong
following a two-hour standoff just 70 meters off one of the disputed islands.
Japan -- which first staked its claim to the islands in 1895, centuries after China had
done so -- resumed control of the islands in 1972 when the United States, which
administered them after World War II, returned them to Japan along with Okinawa.