Chinese Coast Guard Stops Taiwanese Fishing Boat Near Frontline Islands

Taipei, Taiwan
CNN
—

The Chinese coast guard detained a Taiwanese fishing boat in waters off China's southeast coast on Tuesday night, in the latest flare-up of tensions over a group of frontline islands controlled by Taipei.

In a statement, the Taiwan Coast Guard said the fishing boat Tachinman 88 was intercepted by two Chinese Coast Guard vessels near the Kinmen Islands, located a few kilometers from the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou. The five crew members were also detained, according to Taiwanese authorities.

Chinese coast guard officers boarded the fishing boat and then escorted it to a nearby Chinese port, the Taiwanese statement said, adding that three Taiwanese coast guard vessels responded to a call for help but withdrew to avoid conflict when they were outnumbered by their Chinese counterparts.

The Chinese coast guard confirmed it had detained the boat, saying in a statement Wednesday that its Fujian division had “lawfully boarded, inspected and detained a Taiwanese fishing boat suspected of illegal fishing in the offshore waters near Quanzhou.”

Chinese Coast Guard spokesman Liu Dejun accused the Taiwanese boat of violating a summer fishing moratorium by using trawls in a prohibited area and using nets with mesh sizes far smaller than China's national minimum requirements, “thus damaging marine fishery resources and the ecological environment.”

The Chinese statement did not mention the status of the crew members.

China's ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan as its own territory, although it has never controlled it, and has vowed to unite with the island, by force if necessary.

And Beijing has increased pressure on Taipei since President Lai Ching-te, whom it openly detests as a “dangerous separatist,” won a historic third consecutive term for the island's ruling Democratic Progressive Party in January.

Meanwhile, tensions remain high in the waters around Kinmen, a group of outlying islands controlled by Taiwan but nestled just off the Chinese coast.

At a news conference on Wednesday, a senior Taiwanese maritime official said the Taiwanese vessel was detained as part of an annual summer fishing ban implemented by China in May.

Two Taiwanese and three Indonesian crew members were arrested as the boat sailed 11.2 nautical miles off the mainland coast into Chinese territorial waters, said Hsieh Ching-chin, deputy director-general of Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration.

The Taiwanese coast guard demanded the immediate release of the boat and crew.

“The Coast Guard Administration calls on China not to engage in political manipulation that harms cross-Strait relations, and should immediately release the Tachinman 88 vessel and its crew,” the Taiwanese statement said.

The Chinese coast guard has stepped up patrols in the waters around Kinmen and other Taiwan-controlled outlying islands since February, when two Chinese fishermen drowned while being chased by the Taiwanese coast guard, which accused them of trespassing.

In late February, Chinese coast guards intercepted and boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat for inspection, an unprecedented move that surprised Taiwanese passengers.

Taiwanese lawmaker Chen Yu-jen, who represents Kinmen for the opposition Kuomintang party, said that since then, fishermen from the islands have been careful not to enter Chinese territorial waters because of Chinese coast guard patrols.

“The two sides of the Taiwan Strait do not currently have warm relations, so we should be more cautious about staying in our own waters,” she told CNN on Wednesday.

“In the past, the coast guard would usually expel fishing boats that crossed the maritime border, but now they strictly enforce the law.”

This story has been updated with additional information.