The National Security Bureau (NSB) yesterday said that it has identified at least eight methods by which Chinese vessels intrude into restricted waters near Kinmen County, adding that such activities have made monitoring the area more difficult.
Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) made the remarks in response to a question by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Yeong-kang (陳永康) at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee about an image showing Chinese vessels intruding into Taiwan’s territorial waters.
Tsai confirmed that the image captured at 8:40am yesterday showed that seven to eight commercial vessels passed through restricted waters near Kinmen, adding that there were also a few vessels that could not be identified because their automatic identification system was switched off.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration’s Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch
Chen said that he suspected that they were Chinese fishing boats commissioned by the Beijing government to carry out special missions, or vessels operated by the China Coast Guard.
Such activities in restricted waters near Kinmen should not be called “gray zone harassment” and should be regulated by Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration (CGA), but the agency has a limited number of ships to patrol the area, Chen said.
He warned that Chinese vessels might intrude more frequently into Taiwanese waters and drop anchor there under the pretext of being commercial ships, which could affect safety and law enforcement in waters near Kinmen.
Tsai said that the coast guard has dispatched vessels to the outlying islands to address the abnormal activities at the front line, including identifying the locations and types of vessels.
Meanwhile, a bureau analysis has identified eight to nine methods by which Chinese vessels intruded into Taiwan’s territorial waters, such as turning off their automatic identification systems and using maritime mobile service identity numbers from other ships, Tsai said.
“This has indeed raised the level of difficulty of monitoring intrusions of Chinese ships,” Tsai said.
Aside from boosting intelligence-sharing efficiency, the coast guard has allocated about NT$20 billion (US$653 million) to build more patrol ships, which should boost its capabilities in reporting, verifying and repelling intruding vessels.
Separately, Chen said that China’s Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
As a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization, China would announce the designated guidance zones for the airport’s takeoff and landing operations, which could cover half of Kinmen County, Chen said.
Beijing could use this to expand its jurisdiction over Taiwanese territories, he said.
The Ministry of National Defense, Mainland Affairs Council and CGA should closely monitor the situation and be prepared to respond promptly if needed, he said.
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