A Taiwanese cargo vessel was allegedly rammed by a Chinese warship off Kinmen on Wednesday night, causing minor damage to both ships, but no injuries, the Coast Guard Administration said yesterday.
At about 8pm, the Kaohsiung-registered Yu Tai No. 1 reported that it had been rammed by an unidentified Chinese warship about 19.5 nautical miles (26.1km) southeast of Liaoluo Port (料羅), the agency said in a statement.
No crew were injured in the incident, but the Yu Tai’s hull was damaged, it said.
It immediately dispatched two patrol vessels from its Kinmen branch to assist the Taiwanese vessel, it said.
One of the coast guard vessels made contact with the warship, which sailed away, refusing to allow coast guard officers to board, it said.
The crew of the Chinese ship said that its hull was damaged in the incident, the coast guard said.
The vessel headed to Xiamen for a full inspection, it said.
The warship did not identify itself and poor lighting prevented the coast guard from identifying the ship, it said.
The Yu Tai arrived safely at Liaoluo Port at about 11:50pm, it said.
The coast guard is investigating the incident.
A representative of the company that owns the Yu Tai said that it was rammed by the warship, which then asked the cargo ship to follow it to Xiamen.
The captain of the Yu Tai refused to comply and returned to Kinmen instead, the representative said.
The company would wait for the results of the investigation to determine who was responsible for the incident, the representative said.
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