The Ocean Affairs Council yesterday said that it has not ruled out the possibility that China is using maritime militias to provoke cross-strait conflict, even though the Ministry of National Defense said that a clash last month between Chinese fishing boats and Coast Guard Administration (CGA) vessels was an isolated incident.
At a cross-agency briefing for the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee, council Minister Lee Chung-wei (李仲威) said that Chinese militias were to blame when Chinese fishing boats rammed coast guard vessels attempting to chase off boats fishing in Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone.
The majority of Chinese maritime militias are in the East China Sea, as well as the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島) and the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea, Lee said.
Photo: CNA
These militias consist of vessels that are indistinguishable from common fishing boats, which allow them to harass and deter ships from other nations to try to assert sovereignty over the region, he said.
Lee mentioned previous incidents, such as when Chinese ships surrounded the USNS Impeccable, an unarmed surveillance ship, in international waters about 121km south of China’s Hainan Island in 2009; a standoff at Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in 2012; when a Chinese oil rig clashed with Vietnamese vessels in 2014; and when 200 fishing boats, including seven China Coast Guard ships, surrounded the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台列島) in 2016.
While there has been no sign that these tactics have been used in the Taiwan Strait, the possibility of Beijing harnessing informal forces to provoke conflicts at sea could not be excluded, he added.
The council instructed the CGA to keep in close contact with the Ministry of National Defense and intelligence agencies to keep abreast of Chinese activity, Lee said.
In the event that Chinese militia vessels are sighted, the CGA should dispatch ships to monitor the situation and contact the ministry, he said.
The government has also contacted representative offices abroad to facilitate talks with foreign coast guard units regarding peacekeeping efforts, he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of National Defense Chang Che-ping (張哲平) said that the incident last month was an isolated case and that there is no evidence that it was committed by Chinese militias.
If China wanted to threaten Taiwan, it would have used its aircraft carriers or fighter jets, not fishing boats, he said.
However, the ministry would keep a close eye on future incidents, as able-bodied males in China aged 18 to 35 are considered part of the Chinese militia, he said.
The military and the CGA would take caution when handling similar incidents during the April-to-June fishing season and attempt to prevent an escalation of tensions at a sensitive time, he added.
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