Taiwan, China in joint search for 2 missing fishermen

Taiwan and China are carrying out a joint search-and-rescue mission for two missing crew members after a Chinese fishing boat capsized Thursday near an outlying Taiwanese island, killing two, Taipei’s coast guard said.

The coast guard dispatched four patrol vessels after it received a report around 6 am Thursday (2200

GMT Wednesday) that the boat carrying six people had sunk 1.07 nautical miles southwest of the Kinmen Islands’ Dongding islet. The joint operation, which includes six Chinese rescue ships, comes a month to the day after the Taiwanese coast guard’s pursuit of a Chinese fishing boat in the area left two men dead, fuelling ongoing tensions between Taipei and Beijing.

“With the joint efforts of the search-and-rescue units of both sides and the Dongding Garrison”, two crew members were rescued while two others “showed no signs of life”, the coast guard said in a statement. Kinmen is a territory administered by Taipei but located five kilometers (three miles) from the Chinese city of Xiamen. On February 14, a Chinese vessel carrying four people capsized near Kinmen while being pursued by

the Taiwanese coast guard, throwing all on board into the water. Two of the crew died and two others were rescued and temporarily detained in Kinmen.

A survivor reportedly said the boat was “rammed”, though Taiwan insists the coast guard was following legitimate procedures as the vessel had entered “prohibited waters”. Beijing accused Taiwan of “seeking to evade their responsibilities and hide the truth” about the incident, while a Taiwanese coast guard official has said the boat involved was zigzagging, “lost its balance and capsized” while trying to evade a patrol vessel.

Since the February 14 incident, Taiwan’s coast guard chief said an average of six to seven Chinese vessels have been in waters around Kinmen. —AFP