China lodged a strong protest with South Korea last Friday over the death of the captain of a Chinese fishing boat during a violent clash with the South Korean Coast Guard during a crackdown on illegal fishing.
A senior official at the Chinese Foreign Ministry made “solemn representations” over the incident, which had happened earlier in the day, when he called in the South Korean ambassador in Beijing. He demanded that Seoul “conduct an immediate and thorough investigation into the case, punish those responsible and take measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again,” according to a statement issued by the ministry.
The 45-year-old Chinese skipper was shot by a South Korean Coast Guard officer on his ship in waters off South Korea’s western coast and transferred to a hospital in a local port city, where he was later pronounced dead.
It is deeply regretful that the Chinese fisherman lost his life. But it was unjust for Beijing only to raise the issue of Seoul’s response to the problem without mentioning Chinese fishermen’s illegal fishing and violent resistance to South Korean officers.
A South Korean Coast Guard official, who oversaw Friday’s crackdown, said two of his officers were about to be thrown into the sea or injured after being attacked by three or four Chinese fishermen wielding knives and metal pipes. This situation apparently warranted the use of guns under the Coast Guard guidelines, which stipulate that personal arms may be used when severe threats to officers’ safety cannot be suppressed otherwise.
Under these tense circumstances, warning shots were fired, though not specifically aimed at the captain, according to officials here.
The country has been troubled by an increase in illicit operations by Chinese fishing boats in its waters in recent years. The recurrence of violent clashes between Chinese fishermen and South Korean officers has exacerbated public sentiment on both sides. Public outrage erupted here in 2011 over the killing of a Coast Guard officer by a Chinese skipper. Meanwhile, a Chinese fisherman’s death prompted a protest from Beijing in 2012.
During their first summit in June last year, President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to make the waters between the two nations a “sea of peace, cooperation and friendship.” After a lull over the ensuing months, however, Chinese vessels began returning in flocks to catch fish in South Korean waters. Officials here estimate that more than 200,000 Chinese fishing boats have illegally entered the country’s exclusive economic zone annually in recent years. South Korean maritime police captured only 467 of them last year. So far this year, 122 have been seized.
China should be more active in cooperating with South Korea to curb illegal fishing by Chinese vessels.
South Korean and Chinese maritime police plan to conduct their first joint patrol in the zone between the two countries’ waters starting Wednesday. This weeklong operation should be run on a permanent basis over a wider area.
It may also be useful to let Chinese officers board South Korean patrol ships to witness the violent clashes off the country’s coast.
