Taiwan denounces incursion by eleven official Chinese ships in the waters of Kinmen

Taiwan today reported the incursion of 11 Chinese ships into “restricted waters” off the Kinmen Islands, an archipelago under Taiwanese control located 10 kilometers from the Chinese city of Xiamen.

The incident occurred around 3pm (8am in Lisbon) on Thursday, when two Chinese fleets with different types of vessels entered these waters, the CGA said in a statement.

The first, made up of seven vessels from Chinese government agencies, including the Department of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, operated 7.4 kilometers southwest of Liaoluo Bay and participated in “sea exercises” with three other Chinese fishing vessels. Simultaneously, four Chinese Coast Guard ships entered restricted waters south of the archipelago, while a fifth remained within the limits of these waters, the CGA said.

In both cases, the Taiwanese authorities sent three patrol boats to monitor the activities of Chinese ships, collect information and send warnings via radio, having managed to get them out around 4:30 p.m. (09:30 in Lisbon). According to the CGA, this is the fourth time that the Chinese Coast Guard has sailed in the waters of Kinmen, in May alone, and the first time that it has operated simultaneously with other official Chinese ships in the area.

“China has repeatedly sailed these waters at high speed, which has seriously harmed the peace, stability and safety of navigation between the two sides of the strait and hurt the feelings of citizens on both sides of the strait,” the statement said. official.

Last Monday, the CGA expelled four more Chinese Coast Guard ships that entered the restricted waters of Kinmen, an archipelago located 180 kilometers from the main island of Taiwan.

Tension around the islands, home to around 100,000 Taiwanese, increased on February 14 when a Chinese speedboat – without a certificate, name or port registration number – entered the waters off Kinmen and two of the four crew were killed. after a pursuit by the Taiwan Coast Guard.

Following this incident, China announced “patrols to protect the lives and property of fishermen”, which has resulted in frequent incursions by ships in the area. The Kinmen Islands have been the target of multiple disputes between China and Taiwan over the decades, with emphasis on the bombing of 1958, when the Chinese military opened fire on the archipelago, during the so-called second Taiwan Strait crisis. The presence of these two Chinese fleets around the Kinmen Islands occurred eleven days before the inauguration of the elected president and current vice-president of Taiwan, William Lai, considered “an independenceist” by Beijing.

China and Taiwan have lived as two autonomous territories since 1949, when the former Chinese nationalist government took refuge on the island, after its defeat in the civil war against the communists. However, Beijing considers Taiwan to be part of its territory and not a sovereign political entity.