China’s Coast Guard has seized a Taiwanese fishing boat and its five-person crew and forced them to head to a port on the coast of mainland China, in the latest move by Beijing that is likely to increase pressure on Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te.
The fishing boat, Ta Chin Man 88, was in Chinese waters 27 miles northeast of Kinmen, a Taiwan-controlled island off the Chinese coast, when two Chinese Coast Guard ships boarded and took control of it Tuesday night, Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration said. Taiwanese Coast Guard ships that sailed to the area to assist the fishing boat were blocked by their Chinese counterparts, the administration said.
The waters surrounding Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China claims as its own, have become increasingly tense, with clashes between the two sides’ coast guards appearing to be escalating. The concern among officials and analysts is that if such encounters become frequent, it could raise the risk of a clash that could trigger a broader crisis between the world powers.
Taiwanese Coast Guard vessels transmitted demands to the Chinese Coast Guard to release the fishing boat, but the Chinese responded only by “demanding not to interfere,” according to Taiwan’s statement. The fishing boat had two crew members from Taiwan and three from Indonesia, officials said. Many workers on Taiwanese fishing boats come from Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries.
Hsieh Ching-chin, a spokesman for Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration, said the Ta Chin Man 88 had entered Chinese territorial waters. The ship may have been seized because China has been more actively enforcing an annual moratorium on fishing in those waters since May 1, he said.
“This year, China is different from the past, with stricter law enforcement during the fishing moratorium,” Hsieh said at a news conference on Wednesday. Hsieh told reporters that China has seized 17 Taiwanese fishing vessels since 2003 and that the last such incident was in 2007.
He called on China to release the ship and crew and said they should not become pawns in tensions between China and Taiwan. “China should not use political factors to deal with this incident,” he said.
The seizure — and in particular the possibility that the ship’s five crew members could be held in China for weeks or longer — could escalate tensions between Taiwan and Beijing. The Chinese government vehemently dislikes Lai, who took office in May and outright rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims. In the months before and after his inauguration, China has stepped up its efforts to warn and intimidate him and his Democratic Progressive Party administration.
“They want to show Taiwan that they have no control over airspace and sea space. They certainly seem to be increasing the pressure,” said Bonnie S. Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, referring to China’s recent actions. “I think they want to signal to Lai that he is very close to his red lines and he better not cross them.”
Last month, the Chinese government issued sweeping guidelines on punishments it could impose on people it deems to be supporters of Taiwanese independence, sparking alarm in Taiwan, especially since the rules raise the possibility of death sentences in extreme cases. In response, Taiwan warned its population not to travel to China.
China has also stepped up military flights around Taiwan that appear designed, at least in part, to weaken the island’s air force and other defenses. Nearly 300 People’s Liberation Army aircraft flew over the island’s airspace in June, the second-highest monthly count since Taiwan’s Defense Ministry began regularly publishing such data in 2020, according to PLATracker, a site that analyzes data released by the ministry.
According to experts and diplomats, the increased military activity does not mean that an attack on Taiwan is coming. On the contrary, these operations are part of Beijing’s “gray zone” expansion tactics to intimidate and wear down Taiwan, while avoiding a major confrontation that could involve the United States, the island’s main security supporter. China’s large and well-armed coast guard force is a pillar of that campaign.
In February, a Chinese speedboat capsized after being chased by Taiwan’s coast guard, killing two of its crew. Since then, China has repeatedly sent its boats into waters near Kinmen, which Taiwan considers a no-go zone.
In June, China’s Coast Guard imposed new rules detailing its powers to board and detain ships in waters claimed by Beijing, and to detain foreign nationals on those vessels.
China is using its coast guard “to exert pressure on Taiwan’s outlying islands and the main island,” said Ou Si-fu, a researcher at the National Defense and Security Research Institute in Taipei, a think tank under Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. “This ‘gray zone’ harassment creates a nuisance for Taiwan, tiring it with its back-and-forth, because there are so many ships, especially near the outlying islands, and Taiwan has no way to effectively counter them.”