TAIPEI (The Thursday Times) — Taiwan’s coast guard said on Saturday it was still tracking Chinese coast guard ships off the island’s east coast after one of its patrol vessels told a Chinese ship over the radio to leave Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone.
The Coast Guard Administration said its vessel Hualien detected China Coast Guard ship 2503 at about 3pm on Thursday, some 40 nautical miles (74km) southeast of Orchid Island and 14 nautical miles outside Taiwan’s restricted waters.
The Chinese ship broadcast that it was carrying out a law-enforcement patrol east of Taiwan, declaring that Taiwan was part of China and that the People’s Republic of China was the sole legitimate government of China, the agency said.
The Hualien rejected those claims in its own broadcast, saying that the Republic of China (Taiwan) was a sovereign, independent country and that Taiwan and China were not subordinate to each other. It told the Chinese crew they were inside Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone, where China had no jurisdiction, and demanded they leave.
By 8am on Saturday the Chinese ship had moved away and was about 67 nautical miles southeast of Hualien port, the coast guard said. It accused China of undermining freedom of navigation and regional peace, and of violating the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and said it would keep up its patrols.
Pressure before the Shenzhen summit
The radio clash follows a week of Chinese military activity around the island. Taiwanese officials said this week that China had staged unannounced drills in the Pacific involving more than 100 vessels, days before President Xi Jinping is due to host Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Shenzhen.
Xi said this month that “reunification” with Taiwan was the Communist Party’s historic mission. Beijing claims the self-governed island as its own territory and has not ruled out the use of force to take it.
On Saturday, three more F-16V Block 70 fighters bought from the United States landed at Chihhang Air Base in Taitung county, the second batch of a 66-jet order. Deliveries had been due to start in 2023 and finish this year, but technical problems have pushed the timetable back.
