BEIJING — Two violent clashes in recent days involving Chinese fishermen at work off the Korean peninsula have threatened to roil the diplomatic waters between Beijing and two Asian neighbors, experts say.
South Korean maritime officials have detained 11 Chinese suspected of clubbing to death a South Korean coast guard officer last week as he tried to board their fishing vessel, which was suspected of illegally plying Korean territorial waters.
A North Korean patrol boat fired on another Chinese fishing boat Saturday, wounding the vessel's captain.
Seoul officials have long complained that Chinese fishermen trespass into the rich fishing waters off the peninsula. In the last four years, South Korea has caught more than 1,750 Chinese fishing vessels violating a 2001 fisheries treaty between the two nations, officials say.
The death of the 48-year-old coast guard officer has prompted renewed calls in the South Korean news media for tougher sanctions against Beijing and stronger action against Chinese fishermen caught in Korean waters.
With China in the middle of an autumn holiday, domestic news agencies did not carry reports of either incident. Chinese officials in Seoul declined to comment. But Chinese blogs carried news of the shelling by the North Korean patrol boat.
Analysts say China wants to avoid the impression that its fishermen think they can cast their nets with impunity.
"There is still an undercurrent of suspicion in South Korea toward China despite the China craze that has otherwise gripped the country over the last five years," said Adam Segal, a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank.
"The Chinese right now don't want an incident with South Korea and will try to deal with the fishing issue diplomatically," he said. "But if Korean nationalists make a big deal out of this, and it gets reported in China, the issue could be volatile. These are dangerous waters."
South Korean media reported that China's ambassador to South Korea, Ning Fukui, had expressed "deep sorrow" over the officer's death.
Analysts in Seoul say the incident may exacerbate the sentiments against China in the short term, but it will not affect long-term relations between the nations.
"A series of incidents this year -- anti-Korean sentiments shown among the Chinese during the Beijing Olympics and melamine-contaminated foods imported from China -- deepened dislikes and suspicions against China among the Koreans," said Lee Chang-hyung, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul.
