A Kaohsiung-registered fishing boat was held for several hours yesterday by a Chinese anti-smuggling vessel off Pengchia islet, Taiwan's northern-most territory, coast guards said yesterday.
The Tsaifu No. 1 fishing boat was released later yesterday by the Chinese ship after hours of negotiations with vessels sent by Taiwan's coast guard and navy.
The vessels that came to the aid of Tsaifu No. 1 included two coast guard ships and a navy Knox-class frigate.
Investigations by coast guard officials indicated that the Tsaifu No. 1 was held by the Chinese ship mainly on the suspicion that it was illegally selling diesel oil to two Chinese fishing boats.
The incident happened at 11:47am as the Tsaifu No. 1 was intercepted by the Chinese anti-smuggling ship about 60km northeast of Pengchia islet.
It was not clear which side had crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait.
The local press said it was the Chinese ship that crossed the middle line to intercept the boat from Taiwan. A coast guard official said although the Tsaifu No. 1 wasn't operating in Taiwan's territorial waters, the area where it was intercepted was still within Taiwan's 200-nautical mile (370km) economic zone.
After forcing the boat from Taiwan to stop, two armed officials from the Chinese anti-smuggling ship boarded the Tsaifu No. 1, whose crew members then contacted a radio station in Keelung for help, the coast guard said.
Lien Chin-jung (連錦榮), the operator of the radio station, told the press that the radio call from the Tsaifu No. 1 did not last long before it was cut off.
"We were only told that the Chinese ship that intercepted the Tsaifu No. 1 was numbered 819 and that two armed Chinese soldiers boarded the vessel for inspection," Lien said.
The coast guard administration and the navy were informed of the incident around noon. Both sent ships to the area where the Tsaifu No. 1 was intercepted.
The Knox-class frigate arrived at the scene around 3pm, keeping around 2km away from the Tsaifu No. 1, which was being towed by one of the two Chinese fishing boats to which it allegedly had sold diesel oil. The Chinese anti-smuggling ship was nearby.
The negotiations between the two sides did not start until the two coast guard vessels reached the scene.
The Chinese side initially insisted on towing the Tsaifu No. 1 back to China for investigation, but they later gave in to the coast guard's demand that the fishing boat and its crew members be returned to Taiwan after the crew members had answered all the questions pertaining to the alleged sale of diesel oil.
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