Reuters: Most Read Articles: Japan to send back Chinese sea activists to avoid row

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Japan to send back Chinese sea activists to avoid row Aug 17th 2012, 04:34 1 of 2. Chinese activists arrested on suspicion of violating the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law at a disputed island in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku in Japan or Diaoyu in China, are escorted by Japan Coast Guard crew members as they disembark from a Japan Coast Guard patrol ship at a port in Naha on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, in this photo taken by Kyodo August 16, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Kyodo By Stanley White and Chris Buckley TOKYO/BEIJING | Fri Aug 17, 2012 12:34am EDT TOKYO/BEIJING (Reuters) - Japan will send back 14 Chinese activists on Friday who were detained after some of them landed on an island claimed by both Tokyo and Beijing, the government said, a move that could ease tension between Asia's two largest economies. The activists were detained on Wednesday after using a boat to land on the rocky, uninhabited isles known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Since then Beijing has issued a succession of demands for their immediate release. The quarrel over the islands, which lie near potentially rich gas reserves, is one of several dogging Japan's ties with Asian neighbors China and South Korea nearly seven decades after the end of World War Two. "We have confirmed that our response will be to deport those involved," Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters in Tokyo. "There is still some paperwork to go through, so I can't comment on exactly what time this will happen." In 2010, tensions between Beijing and Tokyo flared after Japan seized a Chinese fishing trawler in the same waters after it collided with a Japanese patrol boat and detained its captain for more than two weeks. The two sides appear eager to avoid a similar diplomatic showdown this time. The China Daily cited unidentified Chinese diplomats as saying "all the 14 activists will be returned to Hong Kong no later than Friday". The website of China's official People's Daily said they were likely to be returned on Friday night, without citing specific sources. Japanese police had handed the activists over to immigration authorities, Japan's Jiji News reported on Friday, which would be a prelude to their deportation some time later in the day. Japan's relations with former colony South Korea have also worsened after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited other disputed islands on August 10. The islands are believed to contain frozen natural gas deposits potentially worth billions of dollars. Japan's Finance Minister Jun Azumi said on Friday he was postponing a trip to South Korea for a bilateral finance ministers' summit scheduled for August 24 because Lee's visit to the disputed islands cannot be overlooked. Japan will also review a bilateral currency swap agreement struck with South Korea last year, Azumi said. Japan will propose taking the dispute to the International Court of Justice, Fujimura also said, but this is largely a symbolic move as South Korea's agreement is necessary to open the case. Renewed maritime tensions with China have echoed China's recent tangles with Southeast Asian counties over rival territorial claims in the South China Sea. China's lengthening naval reach has fed worries that Beijing could brandish its military might to get its way in the mosaic of sovereignty disputes in nearby seas. But experts have said both Beijing and Tokyo probably want to cool things down, given their close economic ties. "Tokyo has behaved rather moderately this time," Zhou Yongsheng, an expert on Japanese studies at China Foreign Affairs University, told the China Daily. (Editing by Paul Tait) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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