Diaoyu protesters sue Japan

Activists from Taiwan have accused a Japanese Coast Guard commander of attempted murder at a Taipei District Prosecutors' Office Wednesday after Japanese ships confronted the Taiwan vessel near the Diaoyu Islands and fired a water canon at it.

Huang Tingwei, an activist who was on the Taiwan vessel named Happy Family, and the other colleague, are suing the Japanese commander for NT$5 million ($169,000) in compensation for damaging the boat, which sailed to the waters near the Diaoyu Islands on January 24, according to the Hong Kong-based news portal China Review News.

The boat with seven people on board left for the Diaoyu Islands in attempt to show China's sovereignty over the islands. The boat was blocked by eight Japanese ships about 28 nautical miles southwest of the islands.

Huang said that the Japanese ships issued no warnings before they fired the water cannon. The boat's captain claimed his vessel needed repairs costing NT$5 million.

The Taipei prosecutors accepted the case but said the plaintiffs had not presented enough evidence. Huang, who is also known as Huang His-lin, said they planned to submit materials to support the charge.

However, an activist from the Chinese mainland who helped arrange the trip admitted that Japanese are not likely to respond to the suit.

"We must sue them though we know there is little chance for us to get any compensation from the Japanese. It is a way to exercise our sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands," Li Yiqiang, secretary-general of the World Chinese Alliance in Defense of the Diaoyu Islands, told the Global Times.

Li said the premise of the case is to force the Japanese to yield to China's sovereignty over the islands.

Wang Weinan, an expert of Asia-Pacific relations from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the lawsuit has more symbolic meaning than really trying to bring the Japanese to court.

"It is a way for the activists to attract the government's and the public's attention over the islands," Wang said.

Wang said that the only time the Japanese paid compensation to a Chinese boat owner was through diplomatic channels in 2008.

A fishing boat from Taiwan with 16 crew members was sunk by a Japanese patrol vessel in waters near the Diaoyu Islands in June. Taiwan's representative to Japan was summoned home before Japan apologized, according to an AFP report.