The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday condemned China for sending coast guard ships into Taiwan-controlled waters off Kinmen County for two days straight, branding the actions "harassment."
The intrusions began at 3pm on Tuesday when China Coast Guard vessels 14605, 14529, 14608 and 14513 sailed into the "restricted waters" off Kinmen, approaching east-southeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), the CGA's Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch said in a statement.
At 9am yesterday, the four ships again trespassed into the area and turned off their automatic identification systems in an apparent attempt to evade pursuit, according to the statement.
Photo courtesy of the CGA
On both days, the CGA said it deployed four patrol boats to shadow the intruding ships and broadcast radio warnings, demanding that the Chinese vessels turn around and leave.
On each occasion, the incursions lasted for two hours, the agency said.
The China Coast Guard said yesterday that it was "legally conducting a routine patrol," but the CGA deemed the actions to be "routine harassment."
"The Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch would continue to maintain a high level of surveillance, response and deployment capabilities to monitor and track the movements of Chinese Coast Guard vessels," the CGA said.
"It would uphold a firm law enforcement stance and respond comprehensively to safeguard national sovereignty and maritime security," it added.
Due to the proximity between Kinmen County and the Chinese city of Xiamen, China's territorial waters encompass all of Kinmen, leaving Taiwan with a compromise measure of demarcating "prohibited" and "restricted" waters around the Kinmen Islands that extend 1,500m to 10,000m from the shorelines of the archipelago.
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