Taipei has demanded that Beijing release a Taiwanese-registered fishing boat boarded and seized by the China Coast Guard near the Taiwanese-controlled island of Kinmen late Tuesday.
The incident is the latest source of tension between communist-ruled Beijing and democratic Taipei, following ramped-up patrols and training by China around Kinmen — just 3 kilometers from the mainland.
Taiwan’s coast guard said in a statement that it had received a report from the fishing vessel that it had been stopped by the China Coast Guard in waters around 23.7 nautical miles (44 km) from Kinmen's Liaoluo port.
Taiwanese authorities said they had “immediately dispatched” two patrol vessels "in an attempt to rescue" the fishing boat, while also calling for assistance from a third ship. However, one of the Taiwanese vessels was "obstructed by” three China Coast Guard ships, prompting the Taiwan side to demand the fishing vessel be turned over to their custody.
“We immediately broadcast to China Coast Guard vessels a demand for the prompt release of our fishing vessel. The other side also broadcast to us and shouted to us, requesting that we not interfere,” the Taiwanese statement said.
After detecting four more China Coast Guard vessels coming to the scene, and since they were within Chinese territorial waters, the Taiwan Coast Guard said it decided to halt the rescue mission “in order to avoid escalating the conflict."
A Taiwanese official said Wednesday that the boat had been seized off the coast of the Chinese city of Jinjiang, in an area where Beijing has declared a "fishing moratorium" between May 1 and Aug. 15.
The fishing boat was taken to Weitou, a port in the Chinese city of Quanzhou, in Fujian province, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported, adding that the crew of five was made up of two Taiwanese nationals and three Indonesians.
China's coast guard said in a statement Wednesday that it had boarded and inspected the Taiwanese vessel over suspected "illegal fishing" and for using gear that was "damaging to marine fishery resources and the ecological environment."
The China Coast Guard said it had also "driven away" Taiwanese vessels that had "attempted to interfere with our normal law enforcement activities."
Although observers say such incidents have occurred in the past, Tuesday’s episode comes as China continues to heap pressure on the administration of new Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te.
Beijing, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province, has vowed to unify the self-ruled island with the mainland — and has pointedly not ruled out the use of force to do so.
China views Lai as a “dangerous separatist,” though the Taiwanese leader has distanced himself from past statements supporting independence, a red line for Beijing.
Still, this has done little to ameliorate Beijing’s concerns, with China holding large-scale military exercises around Taiwan just days after his inauguration that it said were a “strong punishment for separatist acts.”
While those drills focused on joint sea-air combat-readiness patrols and joint precision strikes on key targets, they also included “comprehensive law enforcement drills” near the islands of Wuqiu and Dongyin, some 300 km northeast of Kinmen. Those drills — the first in the area — were intended to “test the capabilities of joint patrols, rapid response and emergency handling.”
Tuesday’s incident also comes weeks after expanded China Coast Guard regulations allowing it to detain foreign nationals suspected of trespassing in waters it claims for up to 60 days took effect on June 15.
The updated regulations, which detailed procedural guidelines for cracking down on what Beijing defines as illegal activities within “waters under China’s jurisdiction,” has stoked concern that it could be actively employed not only around Taiwan but also in the disputed East and South China seas.
“Beijing effectively put everyone on notice that its coast guard would be turning up the pressure beginning June 15,” Joel Atkinson, an expert on Asian politics and security issues and a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, said, calling Tuesday’s incident “another significant escalation.”
He said China’s pressure campaign had already been playing out in the South China Sea, noting how axe-wielding China Coast Guard personnel had clashed with Philippine sailors attempting to resupply a military outpost that sits atop a disputed shoal just two days after the new regulations took effect.
“But by letting the Chinese side have its way (in Tuesday’s incident), there is now the serious problem for Taipei of how to get the fishermen back in a way that doesn’t involve concessions, and how to deter China from doing this or something even more serious,” Atkinson said.
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