MV Greenpeace / PC 8023
Position: 31.06N 122.40E East China Sea
June 12th, 1996 17.30 Local time
Day 27

UPDATE FROM XAVIER PASTOR ON BOARD MV GREENPEACE

At 11.55 (Chinese time) we entered the territorial waters of China

At 12.30 we were at the anchorage point of Changjiang Kou, near the mouth of the Yangtze River and requested a pilot.

At 13.50 we got a radio transmission informing us were illegally in Chinese internal waters. We were asked to "stop our illegal actions and leave the Chinese territorial waters immediately".

View this movie 1

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At 13.57 two coastguard vessels from the Port Authorities, with naval personnel, marine border guards and naval sailors came alongside both sides of the MV Greenpeace and we were calmly boarded by approx. 70 soldiers of the three institutions. They were not carrying weapons, but an enormous number of video cameras, microphones, photocameras and tape-recorders. They took control of the ship for the next two hours. They prevented all communications to and from the ship and placed guards throughout the ship and by our inflatables.

Officers from the Port Authority and from the Naval Border Guards met in the Captain’s cabin with Capt. Ulf Brigander and senior campaigner Xavier Pastor plus our two interpreters. 10 or so soldiers with cameras and video cameras recorded the meeting, as did our own cameras and a couple of the journalists on board the ship.

The read us two statements, stating very formally all the laws we had already violated and asked us to leave Chinese territorial waters immediately. We asked for one hour to consider their order. After talking it over we told them we would leave only if they acted on behalf of the Chinese government and listened to a statement from us to stop nuclear testing and commit to a CTBT, and also receive a number of anti-testing presents we had brought from different parts of the world.

Meanwhile up to eight Navy and Coastguard vessels, including a number of gun boats, loaded with many more soldiers surrounded the MV Greenpeace.

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The Chinese officers first did not want to receive our statements or presents until we were proceeding outside the territorial waters, but we said we wanted to do it while in the anchorage with all our crew on the heli-deck. They accepted and so the ceremony took place with about 100 people and nearly 40 cameras of all kind.

View this movie 2

On one of the Coastguard vessels there appeared to be some members of the Shanghai (free?) media, but they were not allowed to come on-board our ship. They were also filming. Our campaigner Dima Litvinov tried to hand the crew of the coastguard vessel a number of Greenpeace China bags, but he got a cold - 'Please co-operate. We already have bags from one of the officers'.

Once we finished, one of the more tough officials said: “Now, leave China immediately! - They left our ship and we heaved the anchor and started to proceed towards international waters at approx. 16.00. The coastguards escorted us (and are still doing so as we write this update outside of Chinese waters).

The general feeling here is that we have achieved the most that was realistically possible. We crossed the line despite their serious warnings, we went into territorial waters six miles and were 'arrested' during the 2-3 hours that the Chinese navy took control of the ship. We managed to bring the message to Shanghai that we have wanted to for so long - 'Stop nuclear testing now and commit to a truly Comprehensive nuclear Test Ban Treaty'.

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Xavier Pastor
On-board MV Greenpeace
June 12, 1996