Identity Politics and Foreign Policy: Taiwan's Relations with China and Japan, 1895–2012

ON 7 SEPTEMBER 2010, A CHINESE FISHING BOAT collided with two Japanese Coast Guard vessels near the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands within Japan's claimed exclusive economic zone. The Japanese Coast Guard detained the crew and ship but thereafter let them go, only to hand over the Chinese captain to prosecutors for obstructing its execution of duties. The Chinese government immediately protested to Japan and demanded the release of the captain. The situation only calmed down in late September when the Japanese government set the captain free but refused to apologize or give compensation. When diplomatic tensions escalated, nationalist activists across the Taiwan Strait quickly mobilized. Meeting in Taipei on 11 September, activists from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau said that they planned to sail from a fishing port in northern Taiwan to Diaoyu/Senkaku to stage a protest there. At this baodiao [defending Diaoyu] forum, Taipei county councilor King Chieh-shou, from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and Hong Kong legislative council member Leung Kwok-hung called for the Chinese and Taiwanese governments to work together and take a stronger stance against Japan. Chinese activists were also scheduled to leave port Xiamen for the islands at roughly the same time.1 These moves echoed the voices from mainland China and Hong Kong urging the two sides to jointly protect the maritime sovereignty of the motherland.2 Further, cross-strait cooperation received implicit endorsement from Beijing. When asked to comment on the baodiao activities in Taiwan, the spokeswoman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council stated twice that safeguarding sovereignty over the islands conformed to the common interests of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.3