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Monday, December 20, 2010

Another Chinese Fisherman Dies in Clash - This Time With South Korea

The situation in Asia is getting really dangerous.

Last Sept. 8, Japan got into a row with China over a Chinese Fishing boat ramming a Japanese Coast Guard ship.

Now, over these last few weeks tensions have been getting extremely high between South Korea and North Korea over military exercises being held by South Korea and the USA.

Of course, China doesn't like it one bit and protested strongly that the USA remove a battle fleet consisting of the US aircraft carrier George Washington from the Yellow Sea between China and the two Koreas.


Now, incredibly, another Chinese fisherman has been killed in the area. This time by South Korean forces.

The BBC reports:


The crew of a Chinese trawler and a South Korean patrol ship have clashed, leaving one fisherman dead and two missing, South Korean officials say.
The clash reportedly happened as the coast guards tried to prevent Chinese boats from fishing illegally off South Korea's west coast.
Video filmed by the coast guard shows officers fighting with fishermen wielding metal bars.
Four coast guard officers were injured, reports say.
About 50 Chinese fishing boats were in waters off the South Korean city of Gunsan at the time of the clash, coast guard spokesman Ji Kwan-tae said, according to the Associated Press.
Mr Ji said one of the boats intentionally struck the patrol ship to try to allow the others to sail back into their waters - but the boat sank after the impact.
At least eight men were rescued from the sea, but one later died.

See BBC video here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12026765

One has to be dumbfounded at the timing of this latest incident (but, then again, if the USA and South Korea are trying to provoke North Korea or China, maybe not.) Also, if this report is to be believed, one has to wonder why the Chinese government doesn't start to insist that their fisherman stay within the law?

I predict that the Year of the Rabbit could be a rough one for Asia relations.
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2 comments:

  1. Ira HataDecember 20, 2010 at 8:00 PM

    Japan should have done the same thing!!

    The Koreans were armed and out in force during the LA riots, protecting their stores. I'm happy to see that they're protecting their fishing grounds against the Chinese.

    The Japanese should follow their example stop being such wimps...

    "i"

    ReplyDelete
  2. mike in tokyo rogersDecember 21, 2010 at 8:35 AM

    AS one guy pointed out, Chinese fishing boats attacking and ramming coast guard ships doesn't seem like a very good way to catch fish!

    ReplyDelete

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