The Control Yuan has ordered the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) to take corrective actions over its failure to record and promptly report a deadly chase between a Chinese boat and a CGA vessel in Kinmen County earlier this year.
In a news release yesterday, the government watchdog said that the CGA’s failure to record the chase hampered investigators and fueled controversy over who bore legal responsibility for the incident.
The Control Yuan’s Committee on Domestic and Ethnic Affairs approved the corrective measures on Thursday last week.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
The incident occurred on Feb. 14 when the coast guard pursued a Chinese vessel that entered prohibited waters off the coast of Kinmen.
The unnamed and unregistered Chinese boat with four people on board refused a request to board and inspect it, and later fled, setting off a high-speed chase that ended when the vessel made a sudden turn, the CGA said.
The boat collided with the CGA patrol vessel and capsized in waters near Kinmen, leading to the deaths of two Chinese crew members.
The other two Chinese nationals who survived the collision returned to China on Feb. 20, while the bodies of the deceased crew and the boat remained in Kinmen for further investigation.
The incident raised tensions around Kinmen, which is less than 10km off the coast of the Chinese city of Xiamen.
The coastal multipurpose boat involved in the chase had been patrolling alone, and not in a flotilla led by a larger vessel, as required by CGA regulations, the Control Yuan said.
After encountering the Chinese boat, the coast guard also contravened several of its operational guidelines by failing to record and promptly report the interaction, it said.
An investigation into the failure found that the coast guard boat had originally been equipped with four video cameras.
However, the cameras were removed in 2022 amid a Cabinet campaign to phase out the use of Chinese-made products, and replacements were never provided, the Control Yuan said.
Although the vessel had a handheld video camera on board, it could not feasibly be operated by the crew during a high-speed sea chase, the statement said.
The Control Yuan said the boat’s crew had also failed to promptly report the chase on its wireless communication device.
While this constituted a lapse, the coast guard’s procedures for reporting such incidents are “scattered” across multiple sets of guidelines and ought to be reviewed, it said.
The Control Yuan said that Kinmen prosecutors had completed their investigation into the incident on Aug. 15 and did not press charges.
However, due to the coast guard’s operation on the front lines of a “gray-zone conflict,” it should be stringent about following internal guidelines and ensuring the equipment and discipline of its personnel to reduce the risk of controversy and to protect national security, it said.
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