HANOI – Hundreds of people demonstrated in Vietnam on Sunday against a Taiwanese firm they accuse of causing mass fish deaths along the country’s central coast, with some also blaming the government for a sluggish response to a major environmental disaster.

Though an official investigation has found no links between the fish deaths and a $10.6 billion coastal steel plant run by a unit of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics, public anger against the company has not abated.

Hundreds gathered in Hanoi holding banners that said: “Formosa destroying the environment is a crime” and “Who poisoned the central region’s waters?”

Others said: “Formosa out of Vietnam!” and took aim at the government for being aloof in what it now describes as one of its worst environmental disasters.

Demonstrations are rare in Vietnam and uniformed and plain-clothes police are usually quick to suppress them. On Sunday they cleared traffic to allow demonstrators to do a lap of a big lake in the heart of Hanoi.

Huge numbers of dead fish have appeared at farms and on beaches since April 6, impacting 200 km (124 miles) of coastline in four provinces, with no known cause.

The environment minister has demanded Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh dig up its waste pipe at the steel project to enable government to monitor its discharge.

The government’s initial probe said the cause could be “red tide”, when algae blooms and produces toxins, or a release of toxic chemicals by humans.

What has stoked public anger was a comment by a Formosa official who said Vietnam had to choose between catching fish and shrimp and building a modern steel industry.

“Here is Vietnam’s territory and there shall never be any case in which a Formosa steel plant has the right to tell the Vietnamese people to choose,” protester Cao Vinh Thinh said.

Several hundred protesters marched in Ho Chi Minh City, the economic hub, according to multiple accounts on Facebook, which is used by 30 millions Vietnamese.

State-controlled media has not reported any of the demonstrations.

Social media and witnesses said protests also took place in central Quang Binh province on Friday, with fishermen throwing fish on the highway after failing to sell their catch. The accounts could not be verified by Reuters.

The government on Saturday ordered the trade and agriculture ministries to help buy seafood caught during deep-sea fishing.

Taipei – Taiwan Sunday sent two patrol ships to waters surrounding a Japanese atoll amid a dispute over the seizure of one of the island’s fishing boats there.

The detention of the “Tung Sheng Chi 16” near Okinotori-shima last week angered Taiwanese officials, who say Tokyo has no authority over the area.

A Taiwanese coast guard ship and another from the Council of Agriculture departed from the southern port of Kaoshiung Sunday.

“Japan has no right to ban our fishing boats from the area,” Taiwan’s coast guard adminstration said in a statement.

“The government will resolutely defend the rights and freedom of our fisherman in international waters.”

The mission will last for one to three months.

Between 100-200 Taiwanese boats fish in the waters around Okinotori-shima each year.

Japan say it has exclusive rights in the 200 nautical mile area surrounding the uninhabited atoll in the Philippine Sea.

But in addition to Taiwan, China and South Korea also reject the Japanese claim.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said it also plans to deploy warships to “appropriate waters” but spokesman David Lo declined to elaborate.

The maritime row is straining normally friendly relations between Taipei and Tokyo.

It follows a stand-off more than three years ago over a chain of islands in the East China Sea, when coastguard vessels from both sides attacked each other with water cannons.

The islands — known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese — are controlled by Japan but claimed by both China and Taiwan.

But in 2013 Japan and Taiwan forged a fisheries agreement covering the waters off the island chain.

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Reuters

Tokyo – Japan’s finance minister said late Saturday the recent sharp rise in the yen is “extremely worrying”, adding Tokyo will take action when necessary.

The remarks, which suggest Tokyo’s possible market intervention, came after the Japanese unit surged to an 18-month high against the dollar in New York Friday.

It extended the previous day’s rally, which was boosted by a surprising monetary decision made by the Bank of Japan.

On Thursday, the central bank shocked markets by failing to provide more stimulus, confounding expectations it would act after a double earthquake and a string of weak readings on the world’s number three economy.

The dollar tumbled to 106.31 yen in New York Friday, its lowest level since October 2014, from 108.11 yen.

The greenback had bought 111.78 yen in Tokyo before the BoJ announcement on Thursday.

“The yen strengthened by five yen in two days. Obviously one-sided and biased, so-called speculative moves are seen behind it,” Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters at Haneda airport.

“It is extremely worrying,” he said.

The finance minister left on a trip, which will also take him to an annual Asian Development Bank meeting in Germany.

“Tokyo will continue watching the market trends carefully and take actions when necessary,” he added.

A strong currency is damaging for Japan’s exporting giants, such as Toyota and Sony, as it makes their goods more expensive overseas and shrinks the value of repatriated profits.

Aso has reiterated that Japan could intervene in forex markets to stem the unit’s steep rise, saying moves to halt the currency’s “one-sided, speculative” rally would not breach a G20 agreement to avoid competitive currency devaluations.

Japan last intervened in currency markets around November 2011, when it tried to stem the yen’s rise against the greenback to keep an economic recovery on track after the quake-tsunami disaster earlier that year.

BAIMAJING – The fishing fleet based in this tiny port town on Hainan island is getting everything from military training and subsidies to even fuel and ice as China creates an increasingly sophisticated fishing militia to sail into the disputed South China Sea.

The training and support includes exercises at sea and requests to fishermen to gather information on foreign vessels, provincial government officials, regional diplomats and fishing company executives said in recent interviews.

“The maritime militia is expanding because of the country’s need for it, and because of the desire of the fishermen to engage in national service, protecting our country’s interests,”said an advisor to the Hainan government who did not want to be named.

But the fishing militia also raises the risk of conflict with foreign navies in the strategic waterway through which $5 trillion of trade passes each year, diplomats and naval experts say.

The United States has been conducting sea and air patrols near artificial islands China is building in the disputed Spratlys archipelago, including by two B-52 strategic bombers in November. Washington said in February it would increase the”freedom of navigation” sail-bys around the disputed sea.

BASIC MILITARY TRAINING

The city-level branches of the People’s Armed Forces Department provide basic military training to fishermen, said the Hainan government advisor. The branches are overseen by both the military and local Communist Party authorities in charge of militia operations nationwide.

The training encompasses search and rescue operations, contending with disasters at sea, and “safeguarding Chinese sovereignty”, said the advisor who focuses on the South China Sea.

The training, which includes exercises at sea, takes place between May and August and the government pays fishermen for participating, he said.

Government subsidies encourage fishermen to use heavier vessels with steel – as opposed to wooden – hulls.

The government has also provided Global Positioning Satellite equipment for at least 50,000 vessels, enabling them to contact the Chinese Coast Guard in maritime emergencies, including encounters with foreign ships, industry executives said.

Several Hainan fishermen and diplomats told Reuters some vessels have small arms.

When “a particular mission in safeguarding sovereignty”, comes up government authorities will coordinate with the fishing militia, the advisor said, asking them to gather information on the activities of foreign vessels at sea.

ROW WITH INDONESIA

That coordination was evident in March, when Indonesia attempted to detain a Chinese fishing vessel for fishing near its Natuna Islands in the South China Sea.

A Chinese coast guard vessel quickly intervened to prevent the Indonesian Navy from towing away the fishing boat, setting off a diplomatic row. Beijing does not claim the Natunas but said the boats were in”traditional Chinese fishing grounds”.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea. The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Brunei also have conflicting claims over the islets and atolls that constitute the Spratly Archipelago and its rich fishing grounds.

State-controlled fishing companies dominate the fleets that go regularly to the Spratlys and are recipients of much of the militia training and subsidies, industry sources said.

China has by far the world’s biggest fish industry, but depleted fishery resources close to China’s shores have made fishing in disputed waters an economic necessity, fishermen and industry executives say.

State-owned Hainan South China Sea Modern Fishery Group Company says on its website it is “both military and commercial, both soldiers and civilians”. One of its aims, the company says, is to let the “Chinese flag fly” over the Spratlys.

“Defending sovereignty is primarily the government’s concern,” said Ye Ning, the company’s general manager, in an interview at his office in Haikou. “But of course, regular folks being able to fish in their own countries’ waters should be the norm. That goes for us too.”

The company provides fishermen who sail to the Spratlys with fuel, water, and ice, and then purchases fish from them when they returned, according to a written introduction to the company’s work executives provided to Reuters.

‘LOT MORE RISKY’

“It’s gotten a lot more risky to do this with all kinds of foreign boats out there,” said Huang Jing, a local fisherman in the sleepy port town of Baimajing, where a line of massive steel-hulled fishing trawlers stretches as far as the eye can see.

“But China is strong now,” he said. “I trust the government to protect us.”

Chen Rishen, chairman of Hainan Jianghai Group Co. Ltd, says his private but state subsidised company dispatches large fleets of steel-hulled trawlers weighing hundreds of tonnes to fish near the Spratly Islands. They usually go for months at a time, primarily for commercial reasons, he said.

“If some foreign fishing boats infringe on our territory and try to prevent us from fishing there … Then we’re put in the role of safeguarding sovereignty,” he said in an interview in Haikou, the provincial capital of Hainan.

China does not use its fishing fleet to help establish sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: “This kind of situation does not exist.” China had taken measures to ensure the fishing fleets conduct business legally, he told a ministry press briefing last month.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

Chen said his fishermen stop at Woody Island in the Paracel islands, where China recently installed surface-to-air missiles, to refuel and communicate with Chinese Coast Guard vessels.

They look forward to using similar facilities China is developing in the Spratly Islands, he said.

China has been pouring sand from the seabed onto seven reefs to create artificial islands in the Spratlys. So far, it has built one airstrip with two more under construction on them, with re-fuelling and storage facilities.

“This all points to the need for establishing agreed protocols for ensuring clear and effective communications between civilian and maritime law enforcement vessels of different countries operating in the area,” said Michael Vatikiotis, Asia Director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, which is helping claimant states design such confidence building measures.

A regional agreement on communications and procedures when rival navies meet at sea applies only to naval ships and other military vessels, he said.

Indonesia is pushing to ban new palm oil operations after last year’s haze-belching forest fires were partly blamed on the industry’s expansion, but producers are warning the move could hit the economy and green groups are sceptical.

President Joko Widodo in April proposed a halt on granting new land for palm oil plantations in the world’s top producer of the edible vegetable oil, a key ingredient in many everyday goods, from biscuits to shampoo and make-up.

In a statement, he said that “palm oil concessions available at the moment are already adequate” and urged producers to concentrate on using better seeds to increase their yields.

Plantations on Sumatra island and the Indonesian part of Borneo have expanded in recent years as demand for palm oil has skyrocketed, bringing huge profits to companies and healthy tax revenues to the government.

But the rapid growth has been blamed for the destruction of tropical forests that are home to many endangered species, and forest fires that occur every year during the dry season due to illegal slash-and-burn clearance.

The 2015 blazes were the most serious for some years, worsened by dry weather caused by an El Nino phenomenon, and cloaked large stretches of Southeast Asia in toxic smog for weeks, causing hundreds of thousands to fall ill, disrupting air travel and fuelling anger at Jakarta.

The proposed moratorium on new concessions is the latest move by Widodo aimed at reducing environmental destruction caused by the industry and halting the annual smog outbreaks.

But the Indonesian Palm Oil Association warned that the ban could damage a mainstay of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy that supports 24 million jobs, directly or indirectly.

“Palm oil is a strategic sector which contributed $19 billion in exports in 2015,” said Tofan Madji, a spokesman for the group, which represents some 650 companies.

Haze hits the region again in 2015

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AsiaOne, Reuters, AFP, Berita Harian, The Straits Times, Khoo G Vui

“It contributes to economic growth, especially in remote areas.” Activists were cautious about the proposal, with Greenpeace Indonesia warning it would not be effective unless the government introduces a tough regulation, rather than just a weaker “presidential instruction”.

The details of the proposed moratorium are still being discussed, and it is not yet clear when it will be adopted, the environment ministry said.

Kiki Taufik, Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner, also warned of implementation problems as various parts of government would need to work together for a ban to operate smoothly.

“This is probably one of the hardest parts. Lack of coordination among officials is common and it often leads to bad implementation of regulations,” Taufik said.

Implementation of laws is also difficult due to heavily decentralisation of power across the archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, with rules set in Jakarta often flouted by local administrations.

A moratorium on new logging permits on primary forest and peatlands – defined as areas not logged in recent history – has been in place since 2011, but campaigners say it has sometimes been ignored when local governments grant concessions.

The palm oil plan follows a 2015 ban on new development on all peatlands after swathes of carbon-rich peat were drained for use as plantations in recent years, creating highly flammable areas.

The government has also pledged to punish more than 50 companies accused over last year’s forest fires. But it suffered a setback in December when a court rejected a $565 million lawsuit against a pulp and paper company accused of failing to prevent the blazes.

Some believe that little can be done to stop the annual fires when there is still money to be made from palm oil.

“The main cause of forest fires is greed,” said Herry Purnomo, a scientist at the Indonesia-based Center for International Forestry Research.

“As long as people want a quick return, quick money, the forest will keep burning.”