Kuan Bi- ling, Taiwan's Minister of the Ocean Affairs Council, speaks to the press while arriving the Parliament in Taipei on Feb 20, 2024. - AFP
TAIPEI: The boarding of a Taiwanese tourist boat by China's coast guard near sensitive frontline islands triggered "panic" among Taiwan's people, a government minister said on Tuesday (Feb 20), but Taiwan's military added it was not planning to get involved.
Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory despite the island's rejection, has been wary of efforts by Beijing to ramp up pressure on Taipei following the election last month of Lai Ching-te as president, a man Beijing views as a dangerous separatist.
China announced on Sunday that its coast guard would begin regular patrols and set up law enforcement activity around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands, following the death of two Chinese nationals fleeing Taiwan's coast guard having entered into restricted waters too close to Kinmen.
Six Chinese coast guard officers on Monday boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat carrying 11 crew members and 23 passengers to check its route plan, certificate and crew licences, leaving around half an hour later, Taiwan's coast guard said.
"We think it has harmed our people's feelings and triggered people's panic. That was also not in line with the interest of the people across the strait," Kuan Bi-ling, head of Taiwan's Ocean Affairs Council, told reporters on the sidelines of parliament in Taipei on Tuesday.
China's coast guard, which has no publicly available contact details, has yet to comment. China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kuan said it was common for Chinese and Taiwanese tourist boats to accidentally enter the other side's waters.
"Boats like these are not illegal at all," she said.
Kinmen is a short boat ride from the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou and has been controlled by Taipei since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong's communists, who set up the People's Republic of China.
Kinmen is home to a large Taiwanese military garrison, but it is Taiwan's coast guard which patrols its waters.
Taiwan Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told reporters at parliament that to avoid a further rise in tensions the military will not "actively intervene" in the incident.
"Let's handle the matter peacefully," he said. "Not escalating tensions is our response." - Reuters
