BANGKOK>> China is stepping up patrols in waters off Taiwan’s Kinmen Islands, days after two fishermen drowned while being chased by the Taiwan Coast Guard on suspicion of trespassing.
The Fujian division of the China Coast Guard will regularly monitor waters off the southern coast of Xiamen, a few kilometers from Kinmen, to strengthen maritime law enforcement, said Gan Yu, spokesperson for the China Coast Guard, on Sunday. said in a statement.
Taiwanese and Chinese fishermen regularly sail in the area, and tensions have been heightened by a significant increase in the number of Chinese vessels, including sand dredgers and fishing boats, in the area.
Kinmen residents have complained about both noise and noise pollution from fishing boats and loss of livelihood from fishing.
The fisherman’s death is unusual despite China’s level of activity in the waters near Kinmen, which is closer to China than mainland Taiwan. China claims all of autonomous Taiwan as part of its territory.
On Wednesday, Taiwan’s coast guard said two of the four Chinese fishermen were killed when their boat capsized. The newspaper said their boat was fishing about a nautical mile from the Kinmen Islands, which Taiwan claims is a no-go zone. The two remaining survivors remain in Taiwanese custody.
China issued a fierce condemnation, blaming Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party for the fishermen’s deaths. He also said there was no such thing as a “restricted” sea area.
Taiwan said an investigation was underway and the Mainland Affairs Commission said it was in contact with Chinese authorities.
The China-Taiwan Affairs Office said on Sunday that further measures would be taken, but did not provide further details.
“Mainland China reserves the right to take further action, and Taiwan will bear any consequences,” said Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office.
Although Taiwan split from China during the 1949 civil war, Beijing continues to regard the island of 23 million people with a high-tech economy as Chinese territory and has increasingly threatened to use military force if necessary to achieve this. There is.