The capsizing of a Chinese boat fleeing the coast guard off Kinmen on Feb. 14 has increased cross-strait tensions. Chinese civilian vessels intruding into other country’s restricted waters, part of Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics, have created new potential flash points that escalate disputes and set up risky confrontations in international waters.
In the Kinmen incident, the Chinese boat lacked registration information and proper documentation. Two of its four-member crew died when it capsized. Although the fishers’ families and the coast guard have given different accounts of what happened, the incident is unlikely to escalate into a military conflict. Both sides of the Taiwan Strait have so far shown restraint and sought to resolve the matter in accordance with judicial probe.
Nevertheless, it is unsurprising that Beijing has used the case to further reject the legitimacy of Taiwan’s restricted areas in the Strait, while the China Coast Guard announced it would increase patrols in waters near Kinmen County. That move is obviously part of a deliberate strategy to claim it controls the area to change the “status quo” in the Strait. China has long sought to expand its “gray zone” tactics in international waters to further its ambitious expansionist agenda. Aside from its deployment of military jets and ships across the Strait’s median line, China has encouraged private vessels, such as fishing boats and dredgers, to illegally enter Taiwan’s waters. Those incursions have significantly affected the area’s marine resources, and are intended to test Taiwan’s ability to defend its territory.
From 2016 to last year, the Coast Guard Administration drove off more than 9,100 Chinese fishing boats that illegally entered Taiwan’s restricted waters, stopping 400 vessels and expropriating 80, agency data show. From 2008 to 2016, under former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, the coast guard detained more than 10,856 illegal Chinese boats. Under President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the coast guard seized only 403, showing more prudence to maintain steady and peaceful order in the Strait.
The Chinese intrusions contravene the UN Convention on the Law of Sea, under which the 160km-wide Taiwan Strait — at its narrowest point — has been defined as international waters, with China and Taiwan each drawing 24 nautical miles (44.4km) of restricted territory off each other’s coasts.
China’s “gray zone” activities have not only targeted Taiwan, but have long and increasingly been used in the East and South China seas and the Pacific Ocean to aggressively expand its territory in international waters with the use of its civilian fishing boats, which have been dubbed China’s “maritime militia.” Hundreds of Chinese civilian boats, which are often accompanied by Chinese warships, frequently gather to assert China’s jurisdictional claims in the South China Sea, leading to escalating disputes and confrontations between Chinese and Philippine forces. South Korean reports showed that it has detained at least 1,704 Chinese fishing boats illegally entering its restricted waters between 2016 and 2019.
While illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is a worldwide problem, Chinese fishing vessels have also become an issue for the US, Japan, India and Australia.
China is expected to increase its coast guard patrols in waters near Taiwan’s outlying islands to further pressure president-elect William Lai (賴清德), who is to take office in May. As Lai has vowed to thoroughly study the Kinmen case and allocate more personnel and resources to improve the coast guard’s law enforcement capabilities, Taiwan should accelerate maritime cooperation with neighboring countries, not only to enhance its ability to confront illegal incursions, but also to show the region that cross-strait disputes are of international concern. China’s attempts to unilaterally challenge the “status quo” in the region might force countries to join forces to push back against Beijing’s ambitions.
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