Tensions Escalate: Fatal Maritime Incident Deepens Taiwan-China Strain

TFD – Explore the deepening strain between Taiwan and China following a fatal maritime incident, raising concerns about regional stability.

As tensions over the deaths of two Chinese nationals mount, China’s coast guard announced on Sunday that it will step up law enforcement efforts and conduct routine patrols around a small group of Taiwanese-controlled islands off its coast.

Taiwan defended its coast guard’s actions on Thursday, following the deaths of two individuals on a Chinese speedboat that approached too closely to a Taiwanese island, as the boat capsized while they attempted to escape a coast guard vessel. Two more people made it out alive.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory. Taiwan has recently protested about Chinese fishing boats and other vessels operating in Taiwan-controlled waters, particularly in the vicinity of the nearby Kinmen and Matsu islands.

China has called the incident at Kinmen’s Beiding islet “wicked” and denounced Taiwan’s measures.

In a brief statement, the coast guard of China announced that it will bolster its maritime law enforcement capabilities and conduct frequent law enforcement patrols and inspections in the waters surrounding Kinmen and Xiamen, one of the Chinese cities that Kinmen is bordered by.

This is to “ensure the safety of fishermen’s lives and property and further maintain the order of operations in the relevant waters,” the statement continued.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office stated late on Saturday that although the fatalities had sparked “strong indignation” in China, there were no waterways off-limits.

It stated, “There is no such thing as ‘prohibited or restricted waters’; fishermen on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been operating in traditional fishing grounds in the Xiamen-Kinmen maritime area since ancient times.”

The office also stated that although China’s government has good intentions for the people of Taiwan, it will never put up with Taiwan’s disrespect for the safety of Chinese fisherman.

China policy-making in Taiwan The Mainland Affairs Council stated that although China has accused Taiwan of “rough expulsions,” Taiwanese forces will keep up their enforcement of the regulations prohibiting Chinese entrance to Taiwan’s waters near Kinmen without authorization.

However, it also stated that ships with no name, certification, or port registration engage in “continuous intrusions” and risky escape maneuvers, which result in “unfortunate incidents” that no one wants to witness.

Since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, when the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan after losing to Mao Zedong’s communists who established the People’s Republic of China, Taipei has ruled Kinmen and Matsu.

While several of the islets that make up the island group are highly defended by Taiwan’s military and off-limits to citizens, Kinmen is a popular tourist destination today. During the height of the Cold War, it was the site of frequent warfare.

Taiwan’s administration, which disputes Beijing’s claims to sovereignty, argues that China has been engaging in “gray-zone warfare,” which is a strategy of employing erratic tactics—such as sending civilian ships into or near Taiwanese waters—to wear out an adversary without actually engaging in open confrontation.

Separately on Saturday, the city government invited a group of low-ranking Chinese officials from Shanghai to Taipei so they could attend the city’s traditional Lantern Festival.

However, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an told reporters he would not meet the group, led by Xu Hao, head of the liaison department of the Taiwan Affairs Office’s Shanghai branch.

When a deputy chief of the Shanghai branch of the agency traveled to Taipei for the same occasion last year, raucous demonstrations were waiting for him at the airport.