Hong Kong/Taipei
CNN
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The Taiwanese tourist boat King Xia was carrying 23 passengers when it was seized by two Chinese Coast Guard vessels as it sailed around the Kinmen Islands, a remote Taiwanese island just a few miles off China’s southeast coast.
Taiwan’s coast guard said six Chinese police officers stormed the ship and conducted a “compulsory” search that lasted about 30 minutes, checking the ship’s route plan, certificates and the licenses of 11 crew members. It is said that Natsuo has “changed direction.” China side of the water to avoid shallow water.
The unprecedented encounter with Chinese law enforcement came amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Taipei, leaving Taiwanese passengers on board stunned.
“It’s very scary,” the passenger, who was escorted back to shore by a Taiwanese coast guard ship on Monday, told Taiwan’s United Daily News in a video. “I was so scared that I wouldn’t be able to go back to Taiwan.”
Kuan Bi-lin, director of the Taiwan Maritime Affairs Council, said on Tuesday that the incident had caused “panic” among Taiwanese people.
For many years, sightseeing boat tours between Kinmen and Xiamen, the closest city in mainland China, have offered Taiwanese tourists the chance to see China’s dazzling skyline without the hassle of border checks. , China also operates similar excursion boats for its citizens.
But the popular shipping route is now embroiled in rising tensions as China’s coast guard has stepped up patrols in the area. Analysts say this is Beijing’s latest effort to tilt the status quo in its favor by undermining Taiwan’s control of the seas.
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The escalation comes after two Chinese fishermen drowned last week when their speedboat capsized while being pursued by Taiwan’s coast guard for allegedly trespassing into restricted waters around Kinmen Island.
Beijing has held Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) responsible for the deaths and is seizing the opportunity to expand its presence in the area.
Since the weekend, the Chinese government has rejected Taiwan’s designation of a “prohibited or restricted area” near Kinmen Island, while the Chinese coast guard has continued “regular patrols” in the waters around the archipelago to strengthen law enforcement. has started.
The Taiwan Coast Guard said a China Coast Guard ship entered Taiwan-controlled waters near Kinmen for an hour on Tuesday morning, sending its own vessel to sail alongside the Chinese ship and using radios and loudspeakers. He announced that he had piloted the aircraft. Away.
Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, said the move is part of China’s “gray zone” tactics, which Beijing has increasingly used in recent years to target coercive or aggressive states that do not go into open combat. He said he was referring to behavior. East China Sea, South China Sea, and Taiwan.
Chung said the inspection of a Taiwanese tourist boat was unprecedented by the China Coast Guard and was aimed at provoking Taiwan and determining whether it would escalate or tolerate this type of behavior.
“The (Chinese Coast Guard) chose tourist boats because they attract a lot of attention, and many people are expected to be on board with cameras and phones,” he said. .
“They seek to erode and challenge Taiwan’s ability to control these waters.”
Taiwan’s Coast Guard said it would continue to enforce the law in waters under its jurisdiction and “flexibly adjust its operations to ensure peace and security.”
Kuang, chairman of the Taiwan Maritime Affairs Commission, said Taiwanese authorities would “educate” Taiwanese ship captains that they do not need to stop for inspection by the China Coast Guard. She said people should immediately seek assistance from the council in such cases.
The risks are high, as the increased presence and proximity of Chinese and Taiwanese coast guard vessels raises concerns of miscalculation that could potentially escalate into open conflict.
Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng highlighted such risks in a briefing to reporters about the China Coast Guard inspection, saying the ministry was “very concerned” about possible miscalculations.
Taiwan’s military will not “actively intervene” in the incident to avoid further escalation of tensions, he said.
Taiwan Coast Guard/AP
Taiwan’s coast guard inspects a vessel that capsized during a pursuit off the coast of Kinmen on February 14, 2024.
China has already increased pressure on Taiwan since Vice President Lai Ching-de, a staunch defender of Taiwan’s identity and sovereignty, won the presidential election in January, giving the Democratic Progressive Party a historic third consecutive term.
Days after the election, China pulled out one of Taipei’s few remaining diplomatic allies, the Pacific island nation of Nauru.
Taiwan last month protested China’s “unilateral” adjustment of its flight path, which could result in commercial aircraft flying too close to the sensitive Taiwan Strait median line, raising concerns about air safety and air defense. The pressure on Taipei increased.
The median line has long served as an unofficial border between China and Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory. China does not officially recognize the existence of such a line, but until recently it generally respected it.
Since then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in 2022, Chinese military jets have regularly flown over the median line as Beijing ramps up military pressure on the self-governing democracy.
Tian Feilong, a hardline legal scholar in Beijing, likened increased patrols by the China Coast Guard in the waters around Kinmen to China’s “breakthrough” of the median line after Pelosi’s visit.
This is not only a “declaration of sovereignty” by the Chinese government, but also a “gradual demonstration and establishment of a new normal” in China’s governance and law enforcement in the Taiwan Strait, Tian told Chinese nationalist news guancha. I mentioned it in the CN commentary. site.
Chung, a professor at the National University of Singapore, expects the Chinese government’s “gray zone” measures to be tightened in the coming months in the run-up to Lai’s inauguration as Taiwan’s next president in May.
“(This is) an effort to test whether the incoming Lai government will make some concessions or make mistakes that the Chinese government will take advantage of,” he said.
“Such slow and gradual actions make it difficult to respond strongly, but also giving in would be in a sense ceding ground to the Chinese government.”