A ROW between China and Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea flared up yesterday over the death of a Chinese activist, only hours after Beijing and Tokyo took diplomatic steps at the United Nations to lower the temperature on both sides.
Mr David Chan (46) died when he and four other protesters from Hong Kong jumped overboard from the freighter Kien Hwa No 2 near the uninhabited islands in a gesture of defiance.
The incident came just after the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Qian Qichen, met his Japanese counterpart, Mr Yukihiko Ikeda, in New York and appeared to make progress to normalise the situation which has soured relations between the two Asian powers for several weeks.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman in Beijing said that the Japanese side promised not to allow Japanese right wing groups to take further action on the issue.
Referring to the death of Mr Chan, the leader of the Alliance of Worldwide Chinese Protection of Diaoyu Islands, he said the incident was "regrettable".
The current dispute has its origins in the construction by Japanese ultra nationalists of a small lighthouse on the islands in July, effectively laying claim to the archipelago which is known to the Japanese as the Senkakus and the Chinese as the Diaoyus Islands.
The structure was damaged by a typhoon and the Japanese extremists returned two weeks ago to repair it, an act which united outraged nationalist sentiment in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Mr Chan drowned when he leaped into the sea from the chartered vessel which had twice entered what Japan considers to be its territorial waters around the islands.
Attempts to resuscitate him by Japanese coast guards did not succeed.
Japanese patrol boats had already repulsed a group of small craft from Taiwan and Hong Kong on Monday, and on Wednesday the patrol boats had chased the freighter and several other vessels which had come from Taiwan, according to agency reports.
The Chinese activists have vowed to tear down the aluminium lighthouse erected by the Japanese group. While forbidding protests in Beijing, China had earlier criticised Japan for allegedly conniving at the "occupation" of the islands.
Tokyo's "laissez faire attitude" had led to a strain in Sino Japanese relations, the official Xinhua News Agency said last week.
It noted that the signing of a peace treaty between Japan and China in 1978 had only come about through an agreement to shelve the issue temporarily.
The Chinese authorities are believed to be trying to keep nationalist passions from prejudicing its trading relationship with Japan, a major partner in economic projects in China.
The death of Mr Chan is likely to lead to renewed protests in Hong Kong, where there have been a number of large anti Japanese demonstrations in recent weeks.