Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) deputy chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) is to visit China this week and express condolences to family members of Chinese fishers who died in waters near Kinmen County earlier this month, the party said in a statement yesterday.
The former Mainland Affairs Council minister has frequently led delegations to China on behalf of the party to visit Taiwanese studying and working there.
The trip comes as Taipei and Beijing are grappling with rising tensions after a series of disputes in waters near the sensitive frontline island of Kinmen.
Photo: Taipei Times file
The KMT said it had begun planning the trip at the end of last year, adding that although the delegation does not have plans to visit Chinese officials, it would not reject an opportunity to do so.
Should the opportunity present itself, Hsia would tell Chinese officials that he wished to express condolences to the families of two fishermen, who fell into the sea and died after being pursued by Taiwan’s coast guard for allegedly entering into Kinmen’s restricted waters, the party said.
Hsia would also tell them that a majority of Taiwanese do not want to see a deterioration of cross-strait relations and sympathize with the victims’ families, it added.
“The delegation would express hope that the truth about the accident would be made public, and both sides could mutually respect each other and prevent similar events from happening again,” it said.
The incident that occurred in waters near Kinmen showed a lack of communication and dialogue across the Taiwan Strait, the party said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Feb. 17 told Taiwanese conducting business in China that her administration “would continue to pursue the possibility of having cross-strait dialogue,” but she has done nothing so far, it said.
“As the nation’s largest opposition party, we are seeking to ease cross-strait tensions by continuing to have dialogue with China, which should not be disrupted by any accident. Such an attitude should be welcomed by both the Taiwanese and international community,” it said.
The KMT said the delegation is scheduled to leave for China today and visit Xiamen, Guangzhou, Nanchang, Hangzhou, Kunshan and Shanghai during the seven-day trip.
Following the deaths of the Chinese fishers, the China Coast Guard on Feb. 18 announced that it would launch regular patrols in waters between Kinmen and Xiamen.
On Monday last week, six Chinese coast guard officers boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat carrying 11 crew and 23 passengers to check its route plan, certificate and crew licenses. The following day, Taiwan’s coast guard drove away a China Coast Guard boat that entered waters near Kinmen.
In related news, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday said China used the deaths of Chinese fishers to engage in cognitive warfare against Taiwan.
She posted on Facebook a screengrab of what she called a conversation between her and former Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) on the Line messaging app, in which she allegedly told Tuan that Taiwanese coast guard officers need to be tough on Chinese fishing boats to prevent them from frequently crossing into Taiwan’s restricted waters, while Tuan said that the Coast Guard Administration must not give the recorded video footage of the fatal accident to the news media.
Kuan said that the dialogue “was fabricated.”
The council said the public should not spread such false information, adding that Kuan has not decided if she would report it to the police.
Tuan wrote on Facebook that the dialogue was false and he has reported the matter to the police.
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