More than 80 Taiwanese protested outside the Japanese trade office--serving as its de facto embassy--in Taipei over an incident at one of the disputed islands in the East China Sea last Wednesday September 8 that are also claimed by both mainland China and Taiwan, but under Japanese control.
The protest came amid a row between mainland China and Japan over the seizure of a Chinese fishing trawler and its captain and crew while fishing near the disputed islands controlled by Tokyo.
China-Japan diplomatic relations nose-dived after a Chinese fishing trawler collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels last Wednesday near the rocky islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
Japan arrested the captain of the trawler and detained the 14 members of the crew. Days later, it freed the crew, but not the captain.
Retaliating, Beijing warned Tokyo that diplomatic relations between the two nations could be affected. It summoned Tokyo's ambassador four times to protest the move and called off talks on joint energy-exploration in the contested area.
Further, China canceled Tuesday a scheduled visit by Li Jianguo, vice chairman of China's Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) to Japan this week because of the continued detention of its fishing trawler's captain. (Source: RTT News, Sep 15, 2010).