 |
By Kim Do-yeun
More than 80 percent of Chinese Internet poll participants said that Korea was responsible for the Dec. 12 killing of a Korean coastguard by a Chinese skipper illegally fishing in Korean waters.
Popular Chinese portal qq.com launched an online survey Tuesday asking netizens who should primary be responsible for the incident, according to Yonhap News Agency of Korea.
As of Tuesday morning, 10,427 people, or 81 percent of participants, voted that the Korean Coast Guard was responsible, showing Chinese netizens’ sympathetic attitude toward their own fishermen.
Meanwhile, 2,447 people, or 19 percent, responded that the Chinese fishermen were responsible.
The Chinese believe that the South Korean coastguard used “excessive violence” that elicited a violent response from the fishermen involved.
The Chinese daily Global Times said that South Korea has adopted a one-sided rhetoric regarding the incident, with not enough evidence or facts surrounding the stabbing of two coastguards, one of whom has died.
This is consistent with the reserved attitude of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose spokesman Liu Min said in a briefing that they are “watching reports while investigations are ongoing.”
The Global Times cited a fishing industry expert as saying that “evidence is hard to come by for such maritime disputes. If there is no video or photographic evidence, the facts are hard to prove.”
The paper further said that Korea’s harsh sanctions against illegal fishing were inciting violent and impulsive responses from Chinese fishermen and introduced one fisherman’s experience fighting with Korean coastguards.
“They were chasing me, so I obviously resisted. We are just ordinary fishermen trying to avoid paying some 300,000 yuan (5.5 million won). We don’t have intentions to hurt people,” said the fisherman, who lives in Shandong Province on the eastern coast of China facing the Korean peninsula.
Most other Chinese media outlets have refrained from commenting on the incident, however, and are only reporting known facts.
