Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) yesterday dismissed China’s complaints about a collision between a Taiwanese naval vessel and a Chinese trawler in the Taiwan Strait, vowing that Taipei would continue its military exercises undeterred.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office called the actions of the landing ship “wicked” following Thursday’s collision off Taichung.
Taipei said that the incident did not take place in “restricted” waters.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
“The Taiwan Affairs Office always says things like this,” Koo told reporters at the legislature in Taipei. “I can only say that we will carry out the drills we should be carrying out.”
Asked if the Chinese fishing boat was spying on the activities of Taiwan’s navy, Koo said it was “not really possible” for such a vessel to get any kind of detailed information on military activity.
China said it is also investigating the collision, which happened on the Taiwan side of the median line of the strait.
The Coast Guard Administration is leading an investigation into what happened, Koo said of the incident, in which there were no casualties, declining to speculate on the reason or where to attribute blame.
Chieh Chung (揭仲), a researcher at Taipei-based think tank the Association of Strategic Foresight, said that China could use the incident as a further pretext to cross the median line and send its own coast guard vessels to protect its fishers.
That would mean Beijing trying to further assert its legal claims to jurisdiction over the waterway, Chieh said, adding that “national security units should not take this matter lightly.”
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