Human rights campaigners yesterday protested in front of the Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits’ office in Taipei, accusing the China Coast Guard of breaching Taiwanese sovereignty over the waters around Kinmen County by boarding and inspecting a Taiwanese tourist boat on Monday last week.
The association is a semi-official representative office of China in Taiwan handling tourism-related affairs.
The protesters called on Taiwanese to refrain from visiting China in the face of Beijing’s increasing hostility toward those who do not espouse its “one China” principle.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
China Coast Guard officers boarded the Taiwanese tourist boat as political vengeance for the deaths of two Chinese fishers, who had been operating an unregistered fishing boat and illegally crossed into Taiwan’s restricted waters, Taiwan Economic Democracy Union deputy secretary-general Hsu Kuan-tze (許冠澤) said.
“It was only normal for Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration to enforce the law in our own waters. While Taiwanese prosecutors are still investigating the incident on Feb. 14, China on Feb. 18 announced that it would begin regular patrols in waters between Kinmen County and China’s Xiamen City, and boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat the next day. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office also supported the China Coast Guard, saying that no restricted waters exist between Kinmen and Xiamen,” Hsu said.
A series of responses from China to the two fishers’ deaths showed its complete disregard for Taiwan’s sovereignty over the waters around Kinmen and its malicious intent to provoke Taiwanese law enforcement personnel, he said.
“We should not become accustomed to Beijing’s constant breaches of the nation’s sovereignty,” he added.
Chinese frequently entered waters near Kinmen and Lienchiang County (Matsu) to engage in illegal behavior, including fishing and sand dredging, Taiwan Economic Democracy Union convener Liang Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.
The Coast Guard Administration has been dealing with these offenses within the boundaries of the law, but it has failed to stop China from frequently challenging the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, he said.
China’s moves to create a new “status quo” and negate Taiwanese sovereignty and power to enforce the law include its unilateral change of the M503, W122 and W123 aviation routes, which took effect on Feb. 1, he said.
Not responding to Chinese bullying would only encourage it to push the envelope, and Taiwanese could gradually become numb to such behavior, like a frog being slowly boiled alive, he said.
Taiwanese should avoid visiting China unless it is absolutely necessary, he said, vowing to launch a large-scale boycott of China if it shows neither remorse nor any improvement.
Taiwan Economic Democracy Union manager Lee Ming-che (李明哲), who served a five-year sentence in China after being charged with “subversion of state power” and returned to Taiwan in 2022, said that Chinese coast guards boarding a Taiwanese China has for human rights.
“Laws in China are defined by leaders of the Chinese Communist Party and do not have identical standards across the board. Casual conversations and conduct of ordinary people could easily be interpreted as intentions to commit a crime,” he said.
As such, not only is it dangerous to travel to China, it is also dangerous to travel to countries that have extradition agreements with China or Hong Kong, he added.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe