Taiwan says a tourist boat from the self-ruled island was boarded by the Chinese coast guard.
Taiwan’s coast guard says the boat carrying 34 passengers and crew was boarded for just over 30 minutes while it was on a sight-seeing trip near the Kinman archipelago, located just off the southern Chinese coastal city of Xiamen but controlled by Taiwan.
Kuan Bi-ling, the head of Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, told reporters Tuesday in the capital Taipei that China’s actions harmed people’s feelings, created panic and went against the best interests of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, the 160-kilometer-wide waterway that separates the China and Taiwan.
Monday’s incident comes days after two Chinese fishermen drowned after their vessel capsized as they were fleeing Taiwan’s coast guard after they entered into restricted waters near Kinmen. Two other fishermen on board the vessel were taken into custody.
China announced Monday that it will increase coast guard patrols in the waters off the Kinmen archipelago in response.
Taiwan has been self-governed since the end of China’s civil war in 1949, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces were driven off the mainland by Mao Zedong’s Communists.
Beijing continues to regard the island of 23 million and its outlying islands as Chinese territory and has been ramping up its threat to achieve that by military force if necessary.
Beijing has ramped up military and diplomatic pressure on Taipei during the tenure of President Tsai Ing-wen, a member of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, as well as the election of her vice president, Lai Ching-te, in January to succeed her.
