China continues to fuel fears of sparking an all-out war after four ships were repeatedly spotted and expelled from restricted waters near Taiwan.
The incident took place across two days this week when Chinese coast guard vessels gathered off the eastern coast of Kinmen’s Beiding Island, although showing no sign of hostile activity.
Patrol boats were sent out to intercept, sailing alongside their unwanted visitors in an attempt to block their advance and prevent them from entering Taiwan’s territory any further.
China sees self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province that will eventually be brought under Beijing’s control – and has not ruled out the use of force to take the island.
However, Taiwan sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders.
On Tuesday, China sent four ships to Taiwan’s southeastern waters and proceded westward in single-file formation. Four patrol ships were then dispatched to intercept the ‘intruders’ to make them exit the restricted zone by 5pm.
In less than 24 hours, however, they returned with their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) turned off in an alleged attempt to avoid detection. But, again, Taiwan identified them promptly and send a patrol out to respond.
They used Chinese and English radio broadcasts to demand the ships to turn away, and under close escort and monitoring, the vessels departed.
China claim the Fujian Coast Guard were simply conducting routine law enforcement patrols near Kinmen.
Taiwanese officials refute this wholeheartedly, adding that Chinese ships have long been using ‘grey zone’ tactics to intrude into their waters on a near-monthly basis, often disabling AIS to go undetected.
They accuse Beijing of engaging in consistent harassment under the pretext of law enforcement patrols.
Concerns of conflict between the two nations have been rising since late 2020 when China were started carrying out activities below the threshold of armed conflict designed to assert control without provoking outright war.
