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SCMP Reporter

An anti-Japanese wave of public sentiment swept Hong Kong when a spat over sovereignty of the Diaoyu islands peaked in September, triggered by the death of activist David Chan Yuk-cheung. A fleeting nationalistic demonstration united members of rival political groups. Some set sail for the archipelago to demonstrate Chinese sovereignty.

  The journey was a symbolic gesture but made international headlines after the protesters managed to beat a fleet of Japanese cruisers and plant a Chinese flag atop a rocky crest of the island chain.

  At the centre of the diplomatic dispute is the potentially oil-rich seabed off the Diaoyu islands - located between Okinawa and Taiwan - and claimed by China, Taiwan and Japan.

  The simmering quarrel flared after a Japanese right-wing group, the Japan Youth Federation, erected a lighthouse on one of the islets in July. The Japanese Navy thereafter cruised the waters.

  The following month saw a rightist group from Okinawa erect another war memorial pole and fly a Japanese flag next to the lighthouse.

  It triggered a fierce wave of anti-Japanese sentiment rooted in Japan's invasion of China in the late 1930s. China's Foreign Ministry said the lighthouse was an encroachment of its territorial sovereignty but no action was taken.

  In late September, activist Chan lead the Alliance of Worldwide Chinese for the Protection of the Diaoyu islands on a week-long venture to the islands.

  On board the 2,800-tonne cargo tanker Kien Hwa No 2, which Chan had hired at a cost of $300,000, were 18 protesters from Taiwan and Hong Kong, angry over Japan's claim to the Diaoyus.

  What began as a seafaring game of capture-the-flag went awry when a flotilla of Japanese coast guard ships turned back the Kien Hwa a few kilometres from shore. Chan and three others jumped overboard to symbolically claim the waters for China. The men, wearing life jackets, had to be saved from the rough sea by Japanese rescuers.

  Three protesters survived but Chan, 45, died and Hong Kong witnessed his death via live television broadcasts. Fellow protesters shrouded his body in the Chinese flag for its return to Hong Kong and 40,000 mourners later attended a memorial rally at Victoria Park.

  Growing nationalism spread to Taiwan as well, with the Keelung and Nanfangao fishing unions planning to mobilise a flotilla to fish the waters around the disputed islands.

  Taiwanese fishermen have complained that Japanese patrol boats have often barred them from operating near the islands.

  Taiwan Interior Minister Lin Feng-cheng promised to assign marine police to escort the fishermen but the protest trip was cancelled.

  China insists the islands have been its territory since ancient times.

  The first movement on the Diaoyus began in 1971 when Washington intended to give control of the islands to Japan after it returned Okinawa to Tokyo.

   Beijing condemned the move as a 'daydream and American imperialism working hand-in-glove with Japanese reactionaries'.

  Hong Kong students took to the streets, calling for a boycott of Japanese commodities. The move resulted in a suppression by the territory's police force.

  The issue resurfaced during bilateral negotiations for a Treaty of Peace and Friendship between China and Japan in 1978 but both governments agreed to defer the issue.

  Historians confirm the islands have been Chinese territory since the 14th century.

  The islands were recorded in China as early as the Ming Dynasty, while they were shown on Japanese maps after the Sino-Japanese War.

  The first dispute over the Diaoyus was in 1895, when China ceded Taiwan and the adjacent islets to Japan after the Sino-Japanese war. But it was a dispute over who should manage the islands.

  Decades have passed but both sides appear no closer to resolving the issue.

  Legislator Tsang Kin-shing, furious over China's infirmity, teamed up 30 protesters to set off for the Diaoyus in October, vowing to tear down the Japanese lighthouse to 'fulfil the uncompleted mission of Chan'.

  Mr Tsang and about 100 demonstrators from Hong Kong joined Taipei county councillor Ching Jei-shou, of the New Party, to sail to the islands on October 6.

  Mr Tsang and Mr Ching managed to beat a Japanese navy blockade and plant a Chinese flag on a rock on the morning of October 7.

   It was the first time a Chinese flag had been flown on the islands in the past 47 years.

  Mr Tsang remarked after he had accomplished the 'Mission Impossible': 'We might be heroes, but only for five minutes. The Japanese will take away our flags. The shame is that China and Taiwan have done nothing to protect the territory. We are only civilians. There is little we can do against the Japanese Navy. The final solution lies with the Chinese Government.' 



Passion, death on the high seas