Taiwan’s government minister, Kuan Bi-ling, has expressed concern over the boarding of a Taiwanese tourist boat by China’s coast guard near sensitive frontline islands. Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has been wary of Beijing’s efforts to ramp up pressure on Taipei following the election of Lai Ching-te as president, a man Beijing views as a dangerous separatist.
China announced that its coast guard would begin regular patrols and set up law enforcement activity around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands, following the death of two Chinese nationals fleeing Taiwan’s coast guard having entered into restricted waters too close to Kinmen.
Taiwan Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told reporters at parliament that to avoid a further rise in tensions, the military will not “actively intervene” in the incident. He said that their response was to avoid escalating tensions.
Kinmen was the site of frequent fighting during the height of the Cold War but is now a popular tourist destination, though many of its islets are heavily fortified by Taiwanese forces and remain off-limits to civilians. China says it does not recognize any restricted or banned zones for its fishermen around Kinmen.
China’s military has regularly sent warplanes and warships into the skies and seas around Taiwan as it seeks to assert Beijing’s sovereignty claims, and has continued to do so following last month’s election. However, a senior Taiwan security official believes China did not want to turn what was happening around Kinmen into an “international incident.” The pressure has also included Taiwan losing one of its few remaining diplomatic allies Nauru to China and a change in a flight path in the Taiwan Strait.
Chinese state media reported Quanzhou Red Cross officials, accompanied by family members, arriving on Kinmen to bring home the two survivors from the boat that had overturned when it tried to out-run Taiwan’s coast guard last week. China has never ruled out using force to take control of democratically-governed Taiwan.
(Reuters)
