Coast Guard Administration (CGA) personnel yesterday drove off four China Coast Guard patrol vessels that had entered restricted and prohibited waters off Kinmen County in the second such incident in less than 24 hours.
China has stepped up its military activities near Taiwan in the past few years, with almost daily incursions into its air defense identification zone.
CGA patrol vessels shadowed the Chinese ships, after they were detected at 8:54am, and broadcast warnings until they left the restricted waters at 10:06am, the administration said in a statement.
Photo: Screen grab from the Ministry of National Defense Spokesman’s Facebook page
“You have entered our country’s restricted waters. Please turn around immediately,” a Taiwanese official told the Chinese vessels via radio, video footage released yesterday by the CGA showed.
The footage shows a CGA boat tracking the movement of two Chinese ships in the near distance.
“The move has seriously impacted traffic and safety. To avoid triggering naval incidents, we urge them to stop such behavior,” the CGA said in a statement.
The Chinese vessels were told to leave less than 24 hours after four others were spotted in waters about 3 nautical miles (5.6km) south of Kinmen’s main island on Friday and were also driven off.
The China Coast Guard said in a statement on Friday that its ships were “legally” patrolling waters off Kinmen.
The restricted and prohibited waters in the area were set by the Ministry of National Defense in 1992. The term “prohibited waters” refers to territorial waters, while “restricted waters” refers to a contiguous zone — an area designated by states to bolster their law enforcement capacity in waters just outside their territorial seas, the CGA has said.
The prohibited zone around Kinmen County extends about 4km east, about 8km south and about halfway to the coast of China in the north and northeast.
Last month, the China Coast Guard began regular patrols around Kinmen, after two Chinese died while trying to flee CGA personnel after their boat had entered prohibited waters. Taipei has stressed the importance of cooperation between Taiwan and China amid heightened tensions.
Taiwan on Thursday sent its coast guard to join a rescue mission at China’s request after a Chinese fishing vessel capsized near Kinmen, and on Friday it dispatched several boats to help search for a Chinese fisher who fell overboard near Lienchiang County.
A senior Taiwanese security official, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters that Beijing is sending out “confusing” messages by continuing its harassment of Taiwan while asking for its assistance in dealing with maritime incidents.
The official said the latest moves by the China Coast Guard in Kinmen “did not carry substantial security threats,” but complicated the situation there.
“We are clueless,” the official said. “We tried to save their fishermen yesterday, and today they are baring their teeth and claws.”
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