By Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing boat operating off the coast of China near a Taiwan-controlled island on Tuesday night and took it to a Chinese port, Taiwan’s coast guard said, in a new escalation of tensions.
China regards democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up pressure on Taipei since President Lai Ching-te took office in May, a man Beijing accuses of being a “separatist.”
The squid fishing boat was near the Taiwan-administered Kinmen Islands, which lie next to the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou, but in Chinese waters on Tuesday night when it was boarded and seized by two Chinese maritime administration vessels, Taiwan’s coast guard said.
The Taiwanese vessel was operating during China’s fishing ban period, the coast guard said, adding that Taiwan will communicate with China and urge them to release the fishermen as soon as possible.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taiwan sent its own coast guard ships to help and transmitted warnings asking China to release the fishing boat, but China’s ships responded by telling it not to interfere, Taiwan’s coast guard said.
The Taiwanese ships then turned back to avoid a conflict and the Taiwanese fishing boat was taken to a Chinese port, he added, saying three of the five fishermen were Indonesian migrant workers.
Taiwan Coast Guard Administration deputy director-general Hsieh Ching-chin told reporters in Taipei that China should explain why it had seized the vessel, noting that in previous cases, fishermen had been released after paying fines when operating during China’s low fishing season.
Taiwanese fishing vessels must increase their alert level and the coast guard will also strengthen its patrols, he added.
“The coast guard also calls on the mainland side not to use political factors to handle this situation,” Hsieh said.
Judha Nugraha, director of citizen protection at Indonesia’s foreign ministry, told Reuters that the country’s consulate general in Guangzhou would assist the detained Indonesians.
This is not the first time Chinese authorities have seized a Taiwanese fishing boat after operating in Taiwanese waters, an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.
A Taiwan official familiar with the island’s security planning told Reuters that they have issued alerts to fisheries and shipping authorities around Taiwan to pay attention to “potential risks” amid frequent Chinese coast guard activities in the region, including near Japan and the Philippines.
It is not uncommon for Taiwan and China to stop each other’s fishing boats trespassing into each other’s territories. So far this year, Taiwan has stopped five such boats from China, according to data from the Taiwanese coast guard.
Chinese maritime control and coast guard vessels have been operating regularly around Kinmen since February after two Chinese fishermen died trying to flee from Taiwan’s coast guard.