Two activists and three crew members left a fishing port outside Taipei on board a fishing vessel, on a mission to support Taipei's claim to islands now at the centre of a diplomatic dispute between Tokyo and Beijing.

"Hopefully, the expedition will again highlight Taiwan's claim over the Diaoyutai," said Huang Hsi-lin, leader of the right-wing group, referring to the islands by their Taiwanese name.

The expedition was delayed after a standoff with Taiwanese coastguard authorities, who had barred seven Hong Kong and Macau activists from joining the high-profile journey in another boat.

Huang's group has accused Taipei of trying to disrupt their planned protest voyage for fear of angering Tokyo.

"Four captains had agreed to take us to the Diaoyutai," Huang said.

Speaking to reporters before setting sail, he said the four captains had been coerced into not joining the expedition to the islands, which lie between northern Taiwan and Okinawa.

"After the protest plan surfaced two days ago they have undergone mounting pressure from the government and some of them have decided not to join the expedition," he said.

"The Taipei government is too soft in dealing with Japan."

Called the Senkaku islands by Japan and Diaoyu by mainland China, the islands are at the centre of a diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo after a Chinese trawler collided with two Japanese coastguard vessels there last week.

The incident has sparked a tense diplomatic standoff between the two Asian powers, with Beijing insisting that Tokyo releases the trawler's captain from custody after its crew was taken home Monday by a Chinese government jet.

"Since the Taiwan government dares not protest to Japan, then we'd like to do it," Huang said.

Huang's allegations were rejected by the Coast Guard Administration, which pledged "to protect the people's maritime activity in accordance with the law".

Taipei and Tokyo do not maintain diplomatic relationship but have close economic ties.

earlier related report
China stops talks over Diaoyu Islands
Beijing (UPI) Sep 13, 2010 - China has put on hold territorial and resources talks over the disputed Diaoyu Islands until Japan releases the captain of a detained Chinese trawler.

The 14 crew members of the fishing boat were flown home on the weekend from the Japanese island Ishigaki, near Okinawa Island, where they were held along with the captain after last week's collision with two Japanese coast guard vessels in waters near the islands in the East China Sea.

Chinese foreign ministry officials also said they oppose the ongoing investigation by Japanese authorities concerning the incident.

No injuries were reported in the collision but minor damages were done to the ships, the Japanese coast guard said at the time of the incident.

On the weekend, the boat was towed to the area where the incident happened to re-enact the collision as part of the investigation.

But Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the investigation is "illegal, invalid and in vain" and could raise tensions between the two countries.

"Japan will reap as it has sown, if it continues to act recklessly," Jiang said.

Jiang demanded that Japan immediately return the captain, who could face criminal charges, Japanese authorities said. The investigation is trying to establish whether the captain deliberately rammed the coast guard vessels in an attempt to flee the area.

Japanese authorities said they can hold Capt. Zhan Qixiong, 41, until next Sunday, after which they must lay formal charges or let him go. The vessel will be released to a substitute Chinese crew, who will sail it to China.

The Diaoyu Islands -- known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan -- are claimed by both China and Japan, as well as Taiwan.

Japan controls the 2.7 square miles of islands that lie 106 miles north of Japan's Ishigaki Island and 200 miles from the Chinese mainland. They are also 116 miles northeast of Keelung city on northern Taiwan.

Disputes over who owns the five islands and three rocky outcrops are not new and predate the second world war. At the end of the war in 1945 they were under U.S. jurisdiction as part of the captured island of Okinawa. But they have been under Japanese jurisdiction since 1972 when Okinawa was returned to Japan.

The issue of ownership rose up the diplomatic priority level after a 1969 report by the U.N. Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East suggested the possibility of large reserves of oil and natural gas in the vicinity of the archipelago.

Since then, the islands have had periodic incursions by Chinese and Taiwanese fishing boats.

They also have become the focus for political activists.

In 2004 Japanese police arrested seven Chinese activists after they had been on the islands for about 10 hours. A month later a member of a Japanese right-wing group rammed a bus into the Chinese consulate in Osaka, Japan, to protest China's claims to the islands.

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