Written by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan on Tuesday sailed into waters near Taiwan’s frontline islands amid rising tensions, a day after the Chinese Coast Guard boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat that Taiwan’s minister said caused “panic”. They chased away an invading Chinese Coast Guard ship. .
The Taiwan Coast Guard said in a statement that a China Coast Guard ship numbered 8029 entered Taiwanese waters near Kinmen on Tuesday morning, and the ship was dispatched and used radio and broadcasts to intercept the Chinese Coast Guard. They chased it away, but it left the area an hour later, it added. .
Taiwan’s coast guard said it would continue to use radar, surveillance and patrols to ensure “harmony and security” near the waters of the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, close to China’s coast.
Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory despite Taiwan’s refusal to do so, moved to Taipei after last month’s presidential election electing Lai Qingde, who Beijing considers a dangerous separatist. We are wary of the Chinese government’s efforts to increase pressure on China.
China on Sunday launched regular patrols and law enforcement operations around the Kinmen Islands after two Chinese nationals on the run from Taiwan’s coast guard died after entering restricted waters too close to the island. announced that it would start.
According to the Taiwan Coast Guard Bureau, six China Coast Guard officers boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat carrying 11 crew members and 23 passengers on Monday, checked route plans, certificates and crew licenses, and carried out approximately We departed 30 minutes later.
“We believe it hurt the feelings of the people and caused panic among the people. It is also not in line with the interests of the people across the strait,” Kuan Bilin, chairman of the Taiwan Maritime Affairs Council, told reporters on the sidelines of parliament. He told the group. in Taipei on Tuesday.
The China Coast Guard, which has not released contact details, has not yet commented. The China-Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Quan said it is common for tourist boats from China and Taiwan to accidentally enter the other side’s waters.
“Boats like this are not illegal at all,” she said.
Kinmen is located just a short boat ride from the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou, and has been here ever since the defeated Republic of China government defected to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the communists led by Mao Zedong, who founded the People’s Republic of China. Managed by Taipei. .
There is a large Taiwanese military garrison on Kinmen Island, and Taiwan’s coast guard patrols the waters there.
Taiwan’s Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told reporters in parliament that the military would not “actively intervene” in the incident to avoid further escalation of tensions.
“Let’s handle this issue peacefully,” he said. “Our response is to not let tensions escalate.”
China says it does not recognize any no-go or prohibited areas for its fishermen around Kinmen Island.
For the past four years, China’s military has regularly sent fighter jets and warships into the air and sea around Taiwan to assert Beijing’s sovereignty claims, and has continued to do so since last month’s general election.
But a senior Taiwanese security official told Reuters on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media that he believed China did not want what was happening around Kinmen Island to become an “international incident.” Ta.
The official said the Chinese government used the Kinmen incident, which resulted in the deaths of two Chinese nationals, as a “pretext” to further increase pressure on Lai.
The pressures include the loss of Nauru, one of Taiwan’s few diplomatic allies, to China and changes to flight paths across the Taiwan Strait.
However, the official added that China is likely to increase pressure on Taiwan ahead of Lai’s inauguration ceremony on May 20.
Quanzhou Red Cross workers and their families arrived on Kinmen Island on Tuesday to bring back two survivors from a boat that capsized while trying to overtake Taiwan’s coast guard last week, Chinese state media said.
China has never ruled out the possibility of seizing democratically-ruled Taiwan by force. President Yori and the Taiwanese government deny Beijing’s sovereignty and insist that only the Taiwanese people can decide their own future.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Editing by Michael Perry and Jacqueline Wong)