Taiwan has driven away a Chinese coastguard boat that entered waters near its sensitive frontline islands, one day after China’s coastguard boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat amid an escalating dispute sparked by a fatal capsizing last week.
A Chinese coastguard boat, numbered 8029, entered Taiwan’s waters near Kinmen on Tuesday morning, Taiwan’s coastguard said, adding that it dispatched a boat and used radio and broadcast to drive away the Chinese craft, which left the area an hour later.
Taiwan’s coastguard said it would continue to use radar, surveillance and patrols to ensure the “harmony and safety” in the area around the Kinmen archipelago, which is Taiwanese territory but sits just a few miles from the Chinese mainland.
The incident came less than a day after China’s coastguard stopped a Taiwan tour boat for inspection, after it appeared to stray into Chinese waters while avoiding shoals. Six officers inspected the documentation of crew before disembarking about 30 minutes later. Passengers on board told Taiwanese media they were scared during the incident, and a minister accused the coastguard of triggering “panic”.
The inspection was the first since Chinese authorities announced they would increase patrols in the area, in response to the fatal capsizing a week ago.
Two Chinese people died after their boat capsized inside Taiwan’s restricted waters last Wednesday. Taiwan’s coastguard said the boat, which was carrying four people, was about 1 nautical mile from Kinmen, and fled after being told to stop for inspection. The two surviving crew were detained and held on Kinmen, and deported back to China on Tuesday afternoon.
Chinese authorities condemned the deaths and called for a full investigation, saying the “vicious” incident had hurt people on both sides of the strait and worsened relations.
On Wednesday, Taiwan’s coastguard admitted that its boat had made contact with the Chinese speedboat during the high-speed chase. Meanwhile, China’s Taiwan affairs office condemned what it called Taiwan’s “brutal treatment of mainland fishermen” which it said had increased since the Democratic Progressive party (DPP) took power in Taiwan in 2016.
Taiwan’s early inquiries defended the actions of its coastguard, saying the Chinese vessel was well inside Taiwan’s restricted or prohibited waters, but had refused to cooperate and sped off.
Family members of the two men killed arrived on Kinmen island on Tuesday to hold funeral rituals and a cremation before returning to China, CNA reported. The six relatives were accompanied to Kinmen by a lawyer, and officials from the Red Cross and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits.
“What we need is to find out the truth of the matter and give us justice,” said He Daibo, the son-in-law of one of the deceased, according to Chinese state media.
Observers are wary of the situation escalating. China’s ruling Communist party claims Taiwan as a province and intends to annex it, and is particularly opposed to the current DPP government in Taiwan, which it labels as a separatist party. The pro-sovereignty DPP won a historic third term in power in January, and the president-elect Lai Ching-te will be inaugurated in May, succeeding Tsai Ing-wen, who will step down under constitutional term limits. Beijing has not responded to the election result with any significant hostility, but officials and observers in Taiwan remain on alert.
Taiwan’s government has called for calm over the Kinmen incident. Its defence minister said “not escalating tensions” was its response and the military would not actively intervene. However, it has also told Taiwanese vessels to refuse any future attempts by China’s coastguard to board for inspections, and China’s Taiwan affairs office has used the incident to reject the legitimacy of Taiwan’s decades-long designation of “restricted waters”, under Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is not a sovereign state.
On Tuesday Taiwan’s premier, Chen Chien-jen, urged rationality and equality on all sides, and said Taiwan would continue to uphold maritime safety and fishers’ rights.
The US state department said it was “closely monitoring Beijing’s actions”.
“We continue to urge restraint and no unilateral change to the status quo, which has preserved peace and stability in the Taiwan strait and throughout the region for decades,” its spokesperson Matthew Miller told a regular news briefing.
Additional research by Chi Hui Lin
