TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan said Wednesday that China has ordered Taiwan’s coast guard not to interfere in the capture of a Taiwanese fishing boat, in what it sees as a growing Chinese attempt to invade Taiwanese territory.
Taiwan’s coast guard also reiterated its call for the release of the boat and its crew, which were pulled from waters near Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Island off the Chinese coast on Tuesday night. That call has been complicated by China’s refusal to communicate with the Taiwanese government.
According to Hsieh Ching-chin, spokesman for the Taiwanese coast guard, the boat was not in Chinese waters when Chinese agents boarded it and sent it to a port in China’s Fujian province.
The Dajinman 88 was intercepted by two Chinese vessels and Taiwan sent three ships to assist, but the one that came close to the fishing boat was blocked by three Chinese boats and told not to intervene, the coast guard’s initial statement said. The chase was called off to prevent the conflict from escalating after Taiwan’s maritime authorities detected four more Chinese vessels approaching, the statement said.
The boat had a captain and five other crew members, according to Taiwan’s official Central News Agency. The crew is Taiwanese and Indonesian.
According to Taiwanese authorities, the vessel was just over 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Jinjiang in China when it was boarded.
China claims autonomous Taiwan as its territory and says the island must come under its control.
Fishermen from both Taiwan and China regularly sail the waters off Kinmen and tensions are rising as the number of Chinese vessels increases.
In February, two Chinese fishermen drowned while being chased by the Taiwanese coast guard off the coast of Kinmen, prompting Beijing to step up patrols.
