Taiwan-China row heats up after Kinmen incident
본문
Tue, 20 Feb 2024 03:07:00 -0500
The China Coast Guard (CCG) is ramping up patrols near Taiwan’s Kinmen island with a coast guard vessel coming as close as 2 kilometers to the island on Tuesday morning, ship tracking data shows.
CCG vessel Zhongguohaijian 8029 was just 1.1 nautical miles from Kinmen’s northwest coast at 9:05 am Tuesday. The location is well inside the so-called “prohibited waters” around Taiwan’s outlying islands, according to data provided by the tracking website Marine Traffic and analyzed by Radio Free Asia.
The boundaries between the outer islands under Taiwan’s control and China’s mainland, called “prohibited waters” and “restricted waters,” were set by Taiwan in 1992 and so far have been tacitly respected by both sides despite China’s never officially recognizing them.
“Prohibited waters” refer to the territorial waters around Kinmen islands that extend about halfway to the Chinese coast, or roughly 4km to the north and northwest. “Restricted waters” extend a little further, about 8km, to the south.
CCG vessels don’t normally enter the islands’ prohibited waters, nor do Taiwanese law enforcement ships venture out of them.
China coast guard vessel Zhongguohaijian 8029 was 1.1 nautical miles from Kinmen’s northwest at 9:05 am, Tuesday Feb. 20, 2024. (Marine Traffic)
This latest development follows a week of escalation after the incident on Feb. 14 when a Chinese fishing boat capsized in Kinmen’s waters, causing two crew deaths. Beijing condemned the incident and pledged to conduct regular patrols “to protect fishermen's lives and property.”
Peace and rationality
On Monday, China dispatched four vessels to the area around Kinmen but they did not enter the island’s prohibited waters.
Also on the same day, CCG personnel boarded and inspected a Taiwanese cruise ship near Kinmen islands, the Taiwanese Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said.
Six coast guard officers boarded the sightseeing vessel ‘King Xia’ on Monday afternoon and inspected “its navigation plan, ship documents, captain and crew licenses, as well as the captain's signature,” according to the CGA statement.
The ‘King Xia’ with 11 crew members and 23 passengers onboard was 2.8 nautical miles (5.2km) northwest of Kinmen’ Wushajiao when it was intercepted by the China Coast Guard.
While admitting that the Taiwanese ship veered slightly off course at the time to avoid low-lying sandbars near Wushajiao, the CGA said there have been many similar occasions when Chinese tourist boats strayed into Taiwan-controlled waters by mistake and the Taiwanese side just issued verbal warnings to drive them away.
“The Taiwanese coast guard calls on China to uphold peace and rationality and jointly maintain tranquility in the waters around Xiamen and Kinmen,” the statement added.
Speaking of the leisure ship’s inspection, Kuan Bi-ling, head of Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, told reporters on Tuesday: “We think it has harmed our people's feelings and triggered people’s panic.”
Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng, meanwhile, said the military will not actively intervene in order to avoid further tension.
“Taiwan has already shown its goodwill to China by defining the area around Kinmen as “internal [prohibited] waters” in accordance with international law, in order to avoid any confusion,” said Su Tzu-yun, a senior analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei.
“This is China deliberately escalating the situation,” Su told RFA.
Kinmen is an outlying archipelago less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from China’s Fujian province but more than 180 kilometers (112 miles) from Taiwan’s mainland. Recently the island has seen frequent flyovers by Chinese drones.
Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
The China Coast Guard (CCG) is ramping up patrols near Taiwan’s Kinmen island with a coast guard vessel coming as close as 2 kilometers to the island on Tuesday morning, ship tracking data shows.
CCG vessel Zhongguohaijian 8029 was just 1.1 nautical miles from Kinmen’s northwest coast at 9:05 am Tuesday. The location is well inside the so-called “prohibited waters” around Taiwan’s outlying islands, according to data provided by the tracking website Marine Traffic and analyzed by Radio Free Asia.
The boundaries between the outer islands under Taiwan’s control and China’s mainland, called “prohibited waters” and “restricted waters,” were set by Taiwan in 1992 and so far have been tacitly respected by both sides despite China’s never officially recognizing them.
“Prohibited waters” refer to the territorial waters around Kinmen islands that extend about halfway to the Chinese coast, or roughly 4km to the north and northwest. “Restricted waters” extend a little further, about 8km, to the south.
CCG vessels don’t normally enter the islands’ prohibited waters, nor do Taiwanese law enforcement ships venture out of them.
China coast guard vessel Zhongguohaijian 8029 was 1.1 nautical miles from Kinmen’s northwest at 9:05 am, Tuesday Feb. 20, 2024. (Marine Traffic)
This latest development follows a week of escalation after the incident on Feb. 14 when a Chinese fishing boat capsized in Kinmen’s waters, causing two crew deaths. Beijing condemned the incident and pledged to conduct regular patrols “to protect fishermen's lives and property.”
Peace and rationality
On Monday, China dispatched four vessels to the area around Kinmen but they did not enter the island’s prohibited waters.
Also on the same day, CCG personnel boarded and inspected a Taiwanese cruise ship near Kinmen islands, the Taiwanese Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said.
Six coast guard officers boarded the sightseeing vessel ‘King Xia’ on Monday afternoon and inspected “its navigation plan, ship documents, captain and crew licenses, as well as the captain's signature,” according to the CGA statement.
The ‘King Xia’ with 11 crew members and 23 passengers onboard was 2.8 nautical miles (5.2km) northwest of Kinmen’ Wushajiao when it was intercepted by the China Coast Guard.
While admitting that the Taiwanese ship veered slightly off course at the time to avoid low-lying sandbars near Wushajiao, the CGA said there have been many similar occasions when Chinese tourist boats strayed into Taiwan-controlled waters by mistake and the Taiwanese side just issued verbal warnings to drive them away.
“The Taiwanese coast guard calls on China to uphold peace and rationality and jointly maintain tranquility in the waters around Xiamen and Kinmen,” the statement added.
Speaking of the leisure ship’s inspection, Kuan Bi-ling, head of Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, told reporters on Tuesday: “We think it has harmed our people's feelings and triggered people’s panic.”
Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng, meanwhile, said the military will not actively intervene in order to avoid further tension.
“Taiwan has already shown its goodwill to China by defining the area around Kinmen as “internal [prohibited] waters” in accordance with international law, in order to avoid any confusion,” said Su Tzu-yun, a senior analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei.
“This is China deliberately escalating the situation,” Su told RFA.
Kinmen is an outlying archipelago less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from China’s Fujian province but more than 180 kilometers (112 miles) from Taiwan’s mainland. Recently the island has seen frequent flyovers by Chinese drones.
Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
자유아시아방송 제공 및 저작권 소유 | RFA provided and copyrighted -www.rfa.org
The China Coast Guard (CCG) is ramping up patrols near Taiwan’s Kinmen island with a coast guard vessel coming as close as 2 kilometers to the island on Tuesday morning, ship tracking data shows.
CCG vessel Zhongguohaijian 8029 was just 1.1 nautical miles from Kinmen’s northwest coast at 9:05 am Tuesday. The location is well inside the so-called “prohibited waters” around Taiwan’s outlying islands, according to data provided by the tracking website Marine Traffic and analyzed by Radio Free Asia.
The boundaries between the outer islands under Taiwan’s control and China’s mainland, called “prohibited waters” and “restricted waters,” were set by Taiwan in 1992 and so far have been tacitly respected by both sides despite China’s never officially recognizing them.
“Prohibited waters” refer to the territorial waters around Kinmen islands that extend about halfway to the Chinese coast, or roughly 4km to the north and northwest. “Restricted waters” extend a little further, about 8km, to the south.
CCG vessels don’t normally enter the islands’ prohibited waters, nor do Taiwanese law enforcement ships venture out of them.
China coast guard vessel Zhongguohaijian 8029 was 1.1 nautical miles from Kinmen’s northwest at 9:05 am, Tuesday Feb. 20, 2024. (Marine Traffic)
This latest development follows a week of escalation after the incident on Feb. 14 when a Chinese fishing boat capsized in Kinmen’s waters, causing two crew deaths. Beijing condemned the incident and pledged to conduct regular patrols “to protect fishermen's lives and property.”
Peace and rationality
On Monday, China dispatched four vessels to the area around Kinmen but they did not enter the island’s prohibited waters.
Also on the same day, CCG personnel boarded and inspected a Taiwanese cruise ship near Kinmen islands, the Taiwanese Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said.
Six coast guard officers boarded the sightseeing vessel ‘King Xia’ on Monday afternoon and inspected “its navigation plan, ship documents, captain and crew licenses, as well as the captain's signature,” according to the CGA statement.
The ‘King Xia’ with 11 crew members and 23 passengers onboard was 2.8 nautical miles (5.2km) northwest of Kinmen’ Wushajiao when it was intercepted by the China Coast Guard.
While admitting that the Taiwanese ship veered slightly off course at the time to avoid low-lying sandbars near Wushajiao, the CGA said there have been many similar occasions when Chinese tourist boats strayed into Taiwan-controlled waters by mistake and the Taiwanese side just issued verbal warnings to drive them away.
“The Taiwanese coast guard calls on China to uphold peace and rationality and jointly maintain tranquility in the waters around Xiamen and Kinmen,” the statement added.
Speaking of the leisure ship’s inspection, Kuan Bi-ling, head of Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, told reporters on Tuesday: “We think it has harmed our people's feelings and triggered people’s panic.”
Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng, meanwhile, said the military will not actively intervene in order to avoid further tension.
“Taiwan has already shown its goodwill to China by defining the area around Kinmen as “internal [prohibited] waters” in accordance with international law, in order to avoid any confusion,” said Su Tzu-yun, a senior analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei.
“This is China deliberately escalating the situation,” Su told RFA.
Kinmen is an outlying archipelago less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from China’s Fujian province but more than 180 kilometers (112 miles) from Taiwan’s mainland. Recently the island has seen frequent flyovers by Chinese drones.
Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
The China Coast Guard (CCG) is ramping up patrols near Taiwan’s Kinmen island with a coast guard vessel coming as close as 2 kilometers to the island on Tuesday morning, ship tracking data shows.
CCG vessel Zhongguohaijian 8029 was just 1.1 nautical miles from Kinmen’s northwest coast at 9:05 am Tuesday. The location is well inside the so-called “prohibited waters” around Taiwan’s outlying islands, according to data provided by the tracking website Marine Traffic and analyzed by Radio Free Asia.
The boundaries between the outer islands under Taiwan’s control and China’s mainland, called “prohibited waters” and “restricted waters,” were set by Taiwan in 1992 and so far have been tacitly respected by both sides despite China’s never officially recognizing them.
“Prohibited waters” refer to the territorial waters around Kinmen islands that extend about halfway to the Chinese coast, or roughly 4km to the north and northwest. “Restricted waters” extend a little further, about 8km, to the south.
CCG vessels don’t normally enter the islands’ prohibited waters, nor do Taiwanese law enforcement ships venture out of them.
China coast guard vessel Zhongguohaijian 8029 was 1.1 nautical miles from Kinmen’s northwest at 9:05 am, Tuesday Feb. 20, 2024. (Marine Traffic)
This latest development follows a week of escalation after the incident on Feb. 14 when a Chinese fishing boat capsized in Kinmen’s waters, causing two crew deaths. Beijing condemned the incident and pledged to conduct regular patrols “to protect fishermen's lives and property.”
Peace and rationality
On Monday, China dispatched four vessels to the area around Kinmen but they did not enter the island’s prohibited waters.
Also on the same day, CCG personnel boarded and inspected a Taiwanese cruise ship near Kinmen islands, the Taiwanese Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said.
Six coast guard officers boarded the sightseeing vessel ‘King Xia’ on Monday afternoon and inspected “its navigation plan, ship documents, captain and crew licenses, as well as the captain's signature,” according to the CGA statement.
The ‘King Xia’ with 11 crew members and 23 passengers onboard was 2.8 nautical miles (5.2km) northwest of Kinmen’ Wushajiao when it was intercepted by the China Coast Guard.
While admitting that the Taiwanese ship veered slightly off course at the time to avoid low-lying sandbars near Wushajiao, the CGA said there have been many similar occasions when Chinese tourist boats strayed into Taiwan-controlled waters by mistake and the Taiwanese side just issued verbal warnings to drive them away.
“The Taiwanese coast guard calls on China to uphold peace and rationality and jointly maintain tranquility in the waters around Xiamen and Kinmen,” the statement added.
Speaking of the leisure ship’s inspection, Kuan Bi-ling, head of Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, told reporters on Tuesday: “We think it has harmed our people's feelings and triggered people’s panic.”
Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng, meanwhile, said the military will not actively intervene in order to avoid further tension.
“Taiwan has already shown its goodwill to China by defining the area around Kinmen as “internal [prohibited] waters” in accordance with international law, in order to avoid any confusion,” said Su Tzu-yun, a senior analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei.
“This is China deliberately escalating the situation,” Su told RFA.
Kinmen is an outlying archipelago less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from China’s Fujian province but more than 180 kilometers (112 miles) from Taiwan’s mainland. Recently the island has seen frequent flyovers by Chinese drones.
Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
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