China's coast guard seized a Taiwanese fishing boat and its five crew members and forced it to sail to a port on the mainland Chinese coast. Beijing's latest action is likely to increase pressure on Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te.
The Taiwan Coast Guard Administration said the fishing boat, the Ta Chin Man 88, was in Chinese waters 27 miles northeast of Kinmen, a Taiwanese-controlled island close to the Chinese coast, when two Chinese coast guard ships boarded and took control of it on Tuesday night. Taiwanese coast guard ships that sailed to the area to help the fishing boat were stopped by their Chinese counterparts, the administration said.
The seas around Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims as its own, have become increasingly tense, with coast guard standoffs between the two sides escalating. The concern among officials and analysts is that if such encounters become more frequent, it could raise the risk of a confrontation that could spark a wider crisis between world powers.
Taiwan's statement said Taiwanese coast guard vessels demanded the Chinese coast guard to leave the fishing boat, but China only responded by “demanding not to interfere.” Two crew members on the fishing boat were from Taiwan and three from Indonesia, officials said. Many personnel on Taiwanese fishing boats come from Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries.
Taiwan Coast Guard Administration spokesman Hsieh Ching-chin said the Ta Chin Man 88 had entered Chinese waters. He said the boat was probably seized because China has been more aggressively enforcing an annual ban on fishing in those waters since May 1.
“This year China is different from last year, law enforcement is stronger during fishing bans,” Mr. Hsieh said at a news conference on Wednesday. Mr. Hsieh told reporters that China has seized 17 Taiwanese fishing boats since 2003 and the last such incident was in 2007.
He called on China to release the boat and crew and said they should not become pawns in tensions between China and Taiwan. “China should not use political factors to deal with this incident,” he said.
The seizure – and in particular the possibility that the boat's five crew members could be held hostage in China for weeks or longer – could heighten tensions between Taiwan and Beijing. The Chinese government deeply dislikes Mr Lai, who took office in May and flatly rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims. In the months before and since, His inaugurationChina has stepped up efforts to warn and intimidate him and his Democratic Progressive Party administration.
“They want to show Taiwan that it does not have control over the airspace and the seas. They are definitely increasing the pressure,” said Bonnie S. Glaser, director of the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, referring to China's recent actions. “I think they want to signal to Lai that he is very close to their red lines and he should not cross them.”
Chinese Government Last Month issued detailed guidelines on the punishments to be handed down to those perceived to be supporters of Taiwan independence, causing concern in Taiwan, particularly as the rules allow for the death penalty in extreme cases. In response, Taiwan warned its people Requested not to travel to China.
China has also stepped up military flights around Taiwan, in a move that appears at least partly designed to undermine the island’s air force and other defenses. Nearly 300 People’s Liberation Army aircraft flew over the island’s airspace in June, the second-highest monthly count since Taiwan’s Defense Ministry began regularly releasing such data in 2020. According to PLATrackerThis is a site that analyses data released by the ministry.
Experts and diplomats say the surge in military activity does not necessarily mean Taiwan is about to be attacked. Instead, such operations are part of Beijing's expanding “gray zone” strategy to intimidate and undermine Taiwan, while avoiding a major confrontation that could draw in the United States, the island's key security supporter. China's large and well-armed coast guard force is a pillar of that campaign.
In February, a Chinese speedboat capsized after being pursued by the Taiwan Coast Guard, killing two crew members. Since then, China has repeatedly sent its ships into Kinmen waters, which Taiwan calls a restricted area.
In June, China's coast guard imposed a ban New rules It mentions its powers to board and detain ships in waters claimed by Beijing and to detain foreign nationals on those ships.
Ou Si-fu, a researcher at the National Defense and Security Research Institute in Taipei, a think tank under Taiwan's Defense Ministry, said China is using its coast guard “to put pressure on Taiwan's outlying islands and the main island.” “This 'grey zone' harassment causes trouble for Taiwan, making it tired of running around, because there are so many ships especially near the outlying islands, and Taiwan has no way to counter them effectively.”
