Greenpeace campaigners appealed to China Monday not to use force against them as the environmentalists headed toward Chinese waters to try to persuade Beijing to stop its nuclear testing.
"From the side of Greenpeace, there will be certainly no confrontation. We hope that the same approach is taken by the other side," chief campaigner Xavier Pastor told Reuters."The crew is quite tense. Everybody has agreed to come here and do what we plan to do," radioman Neil Brewster said as the MV Greenpeace sailed about 50 nautical miles off the coast of Taiwan.
The vessel, carrying 32 campaigners from 16 countries, aims to dock in Shanghai to hold talks with Chinese officials on its nuclear testing program.
Its crew said the ship expected to hit the 12-mile limit off the coast of Shanghai at noon Wednesday.
China, which carried out a nuclear explosion at its northwestern desert test site Saturday but pledged to observe a moratorium from September after one more blast, said it would not allow the vessel to dock.