China protests over Japan's recent detainment of Taiwan's fishing boats: FM spokesperson

BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- China has lodged solemn representations with Japan, asking it to immediately correct the wrongdoing of detaining Taiwan's fishing vessels, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday.

The spokesperson made the remarks when asked to comment on the report that recently Taiwan's "Fu Yang 266" fishing boat and "Fu Shen" fishing boat were detained by Japanese official vessels for violating fishing regulations, and then released after paying the fines.

The spokesperson said that the Chinese government attaches great importance to safeguarding the lawful interests of Chinese fishermen, including those from the Taiwan region. According to the China-Japan Fisheries Agreement, Japan has no right to take enforcement measures against Chinese fishing vessels in relevant waters.

China has protested over this, asking the Japanese side to immediately correct the wrongdoing, and take effective measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again, the spokesperson said.