By Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Chinese officials seized a Taiwanese fishing boat operating off the Chinese coast near a Taiwanese-controlled island on Tuesday night and took it to a Chinese port, Taiwan’s coast guard said, raising tensions.
China considers democratic Taiwan its own country and has stepped up pressure on Taipei since May when President Lai Ching-te took power, a man Beijing accuses of being “divisive”.
An octopus fishing boat was near the Taiwan-held Kinmen Islands, which lie near the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou, but in Chinese waters on Tuesday night when it boarded it was seized by two Chinese maritime administration boats, Taiwan’s coast guard said.
The Taiwanese boat was operating during China’s fishing hours, the coast guard said, adding that Taiwan would contact China and urge them to release the fishermen as soon as possible.
Coast guard officials in southern Fujian seized a Taiwanese boat, China’s coast guard said in a statement, as it violated a summer fishing ban and engaged in illegal fishing activities.
The nets used were also much smaller than the minimum size specified by China, thus harming marine fishing resources and the environment, it added.
At this time, Taiwanese ships tried to “interfere” with China’s general law, and Fujian officials warned and “dismissed” them according to the law, it said.
China’s Taiwan press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday that Washington is closely monitoring the incident.
Taiwan sent its own coast guard ships to help and broadcast warnings asking China to release the fishing boat, but the Chinese ships broadcast that they should not interfere, Taiwan’s coast guard said.
The Taiwanese vessels then retreated to avoid a collision and the Taiwanese fishing vessel was then taken to a Chinese port, it added, saying three of the five fishermen were Indonesian migrant workers.
Taiwan Coast Guard Administration Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin told reporters in Taipei that China should explain why it detained the boat, and pointed out that in previous cases, fishermen were released after paying a fine when they worked during China’s off-peak period. .
Taiwan’s fishing boats need to increase their level of awareness and the coast guard will also step up their vigilance, he added.
“The coast guard also asked the mainland side not to use politics to deal with this situation,” said Hsieh.
Taiwan’s top policy-making body, the State Affairs Council, said it would contact Chinese authorities to get an explanation of what happened and “eliminate unnecessary speculation”.
Judha Nugraha, director of civilian protection at Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Reuters that the country’s embassy in Guangzhou would assist the Indonesian detainees.
This is not the first time a Taiwanese fishing boat has been seized by Chinese authorities after operating in that country’s waters, said the official, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of the situation.
A Taiwanese official, familiar with the island’s security plans, told Reuters they had issued warnings to fishing and shipping authorities around Taiwan to be aware of “potential dangers” amid China’s regular patrol operations in the region, including near Japan and the Philippines.
It is common for Taiwan and China to arrest illegal fishing boats. So far this year Taiwan has seized five such boats from China, data from Taiwan’s watchdog shows.
Chinese navy and coast guard vessels have been operating near Kinmen since February after two Chinese fishermen died trying to evade Taiwanese guards.
