SEOUL, South Korea — Chinese forces seized a Taiwanese fishing boat in the ill-defined waters off the island of Kinmen late Tuesday night and took the vessel to a Chinese port, Taiwanese news outlets reported Wednesday. This is Beijing’s latest aggressive move short of outright combat against the island democracy it claims as part of its sovereign territory.
Taipei governs Kinmen, but it lies just 5 miles off communist China’s coastline in the Taiwan Strait.
The squid boat, with a Taiwanese skipper and four Indonesian migrant crew members aboard, was captured by two Chinese maritime administration vessels, according to Taiwan’s Coast Guard. Taiwanese Coast Guard units rushed to the scene, but were warned off, via loudspeaker, by the Chinese.
The incident took place at the same time the world’s largest naval exercise, the U.S.-led RIMPAC 2024, was being held off Hawaii, a display of American and allied traditional heavy assets at a time when China has deployed more nimble Coast Guard vessels and weaponized fishing fleets to advance its claims against Taiwan and other countries in the disputed South China Sea.
Liu Dejun, a spokesperson for China’s coast guard, said Wednesday that the Taiwanese fishing boat was detained on suspicion of illegal fishing, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Liu said the boat violated a regulation by trawling in a forbidden zone and by using nets that were finer than allowed by Chinese law.
Taiwan’s coast guard noted that a fishing ban is currently being enforced in the waters, and both sides routinely detain boats and fishers in the waters off Kinmen. As of June 15, Beijing stated its intention to detain people “trespassing” in maritime regions it claims. Given the breadth of these widely disputed claims, the announcement has caused considerable alarm.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard on Wednesday issued a formal demand that the ship and crew be released immediately.
The seizure comes as cross-Strait tensions have been climbing steadily this year. In February, two Chinese fishers drowned after their boat foundered while trying to escape Taiwanese Coast Guard ships. In May, William Lai — arguably the most anti-Beijing president ever elected in Taiwan — took office.
Analysts see the Kinmen incident as part of a Chinese campaign of creeping expansionism, in a pattern with recent incidents in the South China and East China seas.
Last month, a Philippine service member lost his thumb in a clash Chinese small boats off a disputed shoal claimed by both nations. While no firearms were used, footage from the clash showed Chinese service members wielding bayonets, clubs and what appeared to be a machete or short sword to stop the resupply mission Manila ordered.
Meanwhile, Chinese and Japanese Coast Guard vessels have both been deploying in waters off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The Senkakus — which the Chinese claim and call the Diayou — are uninhabited, but are governed by Japan.
The RIMPAC exercises — the largest maritime exercises on Earth — kicked off on June 28 and continue until Aug. 1. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, 29 nations, 40 surfaces ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces, over 150 aircraft and over 25,000 personnel are engaged in the U.S.-led drills, taking place on, over and around the Hawaiian Islands. But many in East Asia question whether the impressive display matches the nature of China’s challenge.
Mismatch
While such drills might be appropriate in confronting the People’s Liberation Army’s Navy, they look ill-suited to handling intrusions by China’s vast, wide-ranging commercial fishing fleets, nor the agile maritime assets Beijing is deploying off the coasts of U.S. allies and partners.
A June 4 House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing looked into the best way to confront what experts call China’s “gray zone” tactics, and whether the Pentagon is prepared to respond to China’s use of force “below the threshold of war.” A recent report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute questioned the U.S. and regional response to Beijing’s tactics.
ASPI analyst Molly Pflaum wrote last month in the institute’s publication, The Strategist, in the wake of the House hearing, “In its gutted state, the U.S. Coast Guard is under-prepared to carry out law enforcement duties in the Pacific Ocean and compete with China’s heavily militarized coast guard—a key perpetrator of illegal grey-zone operations.”
The American force needs “more ships, more sailors and advanced capabilities tailored to countering grey-zone operations at sea. … It must also increase its engagement with Indo-Pacific allies to build up maritime law enforcement cooperation in the region.”
The House hearing looked into nonlethal means to counter China, including equipping U.S. Coast Guard vessels with the “Active Denial System” that emits an electromagnetic beam that causes skin discomfort on targeted personal, such as the crews of vessels engaged in blockading, ramming or boarding. The hearing also heard testimony that the Coast Guard must deploy drones for more effective reconnaissance and monitoring.
China for its part is trying to bolster its efforts in the propaganda wars, trying to fight the “David and Goliath” narrative as it clashes with smaller states like Taiwan and the Philippines around the region.
In a conference held in China last month, around 100 Chinese academics and legal scholars were urged to come up with better arguments to underpin Beijing’s policies.
“Narrative construction and discourse building are essential if we are to effectively defend our rights and interests in the South China Sea — both in the present and in future,” Wu Shicun, founder of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, told the scholars, conceding that China is facing “an increasingly arduous battle over public perception and opinion.”
• Andrew Salmon can be reached at asalmon@washingtontimes.com.
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