The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday blasted Beijing after three Chinese vessels crossed the median line while Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was helping with search-and-rescue efforts for Chinese fishers.
The Chinese fishing boat Min Long Yu 60877 on Saturday sank in waters off Kinmen’s Dongding Island (東碇島), with three of its crew members missing.
The CGA at about 4am on Saturday received a report saying that the Chinese fishing boat sank after colliding with an unidentified vessel 6.6 nautical miles (12.2km) east of Dongding and 9 nautical miles off the prohibited waters of Taiwan proper.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
Four crew members were rescued, but one of them passed away despite emergency treatment, and three remain missing.
While Taiwan dispatched personnel from the CGA and the armed forces to support the search-and-rescue operations, China’s Fujian Maritime Safety Administration and Donghai Rescue Bureau performed “a patrol and law enforcement operation in the Taiwan Strait from Saturday to Sunday,” China’s Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.
The operation involved “three public service ships” and “lasted 30.5 hours,” covering “a total distance of 413 nautical miles,” it said.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
However, the CGA yesterday said that the three Chinese ships crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line for 3.2 nautical miles (5.9km) before they turned around and sailed toward China.
Taiwan actively helped in the search for the Chinese fishers in the spirit of humanitarianism and mutual assistance even though it did not involve Taiwanese vessels and it was beyond Taiwanese waters, but its “good deed was punished” by China, DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) told a news conference yesterday.
China should control itself instead of using accidents to conduct “gray zone” activities to undermine Taiwan’s jurisdiction, DPP caucus deputy secretary-general Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) said.
Separately, CGA officials said they are increasing efforts to prevent Chinese fishing boats from operating across borders, adding that only sporadic violations have been reported so far.
As of noon on Sunday, only the outlying Matsu and Kinmen islands have reported a few cross-border Chinese fishing activities, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch said in a press release.
All illegal fishing vessels have been expelled, the CGA said, adding that there were no mass-scale contraventions, despite public concerns after China’s three-and-a-half-month fishing moratorium concluded on Friday.
However, the CGA said it had deployed one ship, 19 boats, 29 vehicles, 74 motorcycles and 301 personnel over the past two days in response to potential offenses.
The CGA also dismissed earlier media reports saying that Chinese fishing boats were using fake automatic identification systems (AIS) to appear as Taiwanese vessels.
Citing a marine patrol operation on Saturday afternoon, the CGA reported identifying about 20 Chinese fishing boats approximately 20 nautical miles outside the restricted waters around Penghu County, where no Taiwanese vessels or related AIS signals were detected.
In other developments, Xiamen University’s Cross-Strait Institute of Urban Planning on Aug. 5 said in a now-deleted online post that Beijing should be ready to “take over” Taiwan, as US former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is very likely to return to the White House and would accelerate cross-strait “reunification.”
Commenting on the matter, Wu yesterday said that Taiwan cannot be taken over by any party, and that Taiwan and China are not subordinate to each other.
“We have a democratically elected president of our own, and we can be protected only by ourselves,” she said.
Hung said that China has never ceased its statements threatening to take Taiwan by force, which have only resulted in fomenting a deep distrust of Beijing in the international community.
China should prioritize addressing domestic economic problems and not use external issues to cover its inability to manage internal affairs and the public’s disappointment, he said.
Taiwan’s future can only be decided by the 24 million people in Taiwan, Hung said, adding that “the statement made by Xiamen University’s researchers was delusional.”
Additional reporting by CNA
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
RSS