China told to ‘be rational’ after deadly capsizing

Taiwan called on Beijing to “be rational” on Tuesday following a deadly incident involving a Chinese fishing boat and the self-ruled island’s coast guard, with Taipei’s premier insisting it would protect its waters.

China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory, and relations between the two have plummeted in recent years.

Last week, two Chinese crew members died after a boat capsized near Kinmen, an island administered by Taipei but located just 5 kilometers from the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen.

It was being pursued by Taiwan’s coast guard for being within prohibited waters.

China announced stepped-up patrols around Taiwan’s waters, and on Monday, members of its coast guard briefly boarded a Taiwanese cruise ship to check the captain and passengers’ details.

Taiwan’s Premier Chen Chien-jen said on Tuesday that both sides had been aware of “restricted and offlimits sea areas” since 1992.

“We will continue to protect these sea areas to ensure safety in our territorial waters and the rights of our fishermen,” Chen told reporters outside Taiwan’s parliament.

“We hope both sides can be rational, equitable and cooperate with each other to ensure the safety of the Kinmen-Xiamen waters so that the people from both sides of the strait can engage with each other in a healthy and orderly manner,” he said.

Taiwan’s Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said the military would not get involved, leaving it to the coast guard to monitor waters around Kinmen, “because we want to avoid war.”

“If we intervene, it will escalate the conflict which we do not want to see,” he said. “Let’s handle the matter peacefully.”

Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and in recent years has ramped up the rhetoric on “unification.”

It has stepped up military pressure on Taiwan by deploying warplanes and naval vessels around the island nearly daily.

Last month, Taiwan held a leadership election which ended in a win for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s Lai Ching-te — a candidate Beijing considers a “separatist.”

Also on Tuesday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had detected 24 Chinese warplanes around the island in the 24-hour period ending at 6 a.m. — a slight uptick compared with recent days.

Relatives of the two deceased crew arrived in Kinmen on Tuesday, while authorities said the two surviving shipmates would be repatriated.

Taiwan’s coast guard has defended its actions during the pursuit that led to the deadly capsizing, saying the Chinese crew refused to cooperate with law enforcement.

It is not uncommon for Chinese and Taiwanese ships to accidentally enter the other’s side, and Kinmen legislator Chen Yu-jen said the mainland’s coast guard had boarded the tourist ship on Monday after it sailed “about 1 kilometer” into its waters.

“When relations between the two sides were relatively peaceful, we would not board each other’s boats ... It’s because, at that time, there was a tacit understanding, and the two sides would not take tougher actions,” she told reporters.

But now with tenser cross-strait relations, she urged Taiwan’s tourist boats and fishermen to stay within their waters.

“This is the safest way,” Chen told reporters.