Japan releases Chinese captain in territorial dispute; China demands apology

Japan releases Chinese boat captain amid dispute

BEIJING — China demanded an apology and compensation from Japan on Saturday after it released a Chinese fishing boat captain held more than two weeks after a collision near disputed islands that has triggered the worst spat between the Asian neighbors in years.

Japanese authorities released Zhan Qixiong, 41, early Saturday morning and he was flown home by chartered plane to Fuzhou, the capital of China’s southeastern Fujian province, the offical Xinhua News Agency reported.

State broadcaster China Central Television showed footage of Zhan walking off the plane around 4 a.m., smiling and holding up his fingers in a victory sign. He was greeted by family members bearing flowers and a small group of government officials.

“I firmly support the Chinese government’s stance. Diaoyu islands belong to China. It’s legal that I go there to fish but it’s illegal that they detained me. I did not violate the law,” he told CCTV.

Though his release is intended to defuse a diplomatic spat sparked when Japan arrested the captain after his trawler collided with two Japanese patrol boats near islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, tensions remain high.

China’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement repeating its “strong protest” over the boat crew’s detention, reiterating its “indisputable” claim to the islands, and seeking an apology from Japan.

“It is unlawful and invalid for Japan to detain, investigate or take any form of judicial measures against the Chinese fishermen and trawler. The Japanese side must make an apology and compensation for this incident,” the statement said.

Calls to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s office went unanswered Saturday, and no one authorized to speak to the media answered calls to the Foreign Ministry.

Zhan’s release came after intense pressure from China, which suspended ministerial-level dialogue with Tokyo and postponed talks on developing disputed undersea gas fields. Earlier this week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had sternly threatened “further action” against Japan if it did not immediately release the captain.

On Friday, Kan, who was in New York for a U.N. summit also attended by Wen, called for calm discussions between China and Japan in the wake of the tense territorial spat.

But an editorial Saturday in Japan’s nationally circulated Yomiuri newspaper criticized the captain’s release as “a political decision that put the mending of relations as a priority” and urged the Japanese government to fully explain its decision to the people.

“Needless to say, the Senakaku Islands are part of Japan’s territory. The government must continue to assert this view both domestically and abroad,” it said.

Zhan was arrested on Sept. 8 after the collision off the uninhabited chain of islands called Diaoyu or Diaoyutai in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese. Located 120 miles (190 kilometers) east of Taiwan, the islands are controlled by Japan, but also claimed by Taiwan and China.

Prosecutors had detained and questioned the captain while they decided whether to press charges. His 14-member crew and ship were returned to China.

The captain’s arrest, and the territorial dispute behind it, stirred nationalistic sentiment in China and Japan and threatened to undermine business ties between their intertwined economies — the world’s second- and third-largest.

On Thursday, Beijing said it was investigating four Japanese suspected of illegally filming military targets and entering a military zone without authorization. There were also reports that China had suspended Japan-bound shipments of rare earth metals crucial in advanced manufacturing.

Four employees of Fujita Corp., a Japanese construction company, were being questioned by Chinese authorities, the company said. The men were working to prepare a bid for a project to dispose of chemical weapons abandoned in China by the Japanese military during World War II.

Meanwhile, Japanese trading company officials said that starting Tuesday, China had halted exports to Japan of rare earth elements, which are essential for making superconductors, computers, hybrid electric cars and other high-tech products. Japan imports 50 percent of China’s rare earth shipments.

China’s Trade Ministry denied reports that Beijing is tightening curbs on exports of rare earths to Japan, but Japan’s trade minister, Akihiro Ohata, said he has “information” that China’s exports to some Japanese trading houses have been stopped.

The territorial dispute over the islands is one of many that has strained ties between Tokyo and Beijing. Japan annexed the island chain in 1895, saying no nation exercised a formal claim over them. The islands, lying roughly midway between Okinawa and Taiwan, were administered by the United States after World War II until they were returned to Tokyo in 1972.

Washington has signaled its intention to protect its interests in those waters and to keep them open for commerce, drawing China’s irritation by urging it to resolve the disputes.

The U.S. praised Japan’s decision to release the captain. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Friday that the U.S. hopes the decision will ease tensions between the two longtime Asian rivals.

However, authorities in Okinawa said they wouldn’t officially close the case — leaving room for some ambiguity that would allow both countries to save face.

Associated Press writers Malcolm Foster, Mari Yamaguchi, Shino Yuasa and Jay Alabaster in Tokyo and Alexa Olesen and Anita Chang in Beijing contributed to this report.