By Ben Blanchard and Yimo Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Chinese officials boarded a Taiwanese fishing boat operating close to China’s coast near a Taiwan-controlled island late on Tuesday, then seized it and took it to a Chinese port, Taiwan’s coast guard said, in a further escalation of tensions.
China views democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own province and has stepped up pressure on Taipei since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in May, a man Beijing accuses of being a “separatist”.
The Taiwanese Coast Guard said the squid fishing boat was near the Taiwanese-administered Kinmen Islands, which lie next to the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou, but in Chinese waters on Tuesday evening when two Chinese maritime administration boats boarded and seized it.
The Taiwanese boat was operating during China’s fishing ban, the coast guard said, adding that Taiwan will communicate with China and urge it to release the fishermen as soon as possible.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taiwan’s coast guard said Taiwan sent its coast guard ships to help and broadcast warnings demanding that China release the fishing boat, but the Chinese ships broadcast a warning not to interfere.
She added that the Taiwanese ships then retreated to avoid conflict, and the Taiwanese fishing vessel was then transferred to a Chinese port, noting that three of the five fishermen were Indonesian migrant workers.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard Department deputy director-general Hsieh Ching-chen told reporters in Taipei that China should explain why it detained the boat, noting that in previous cases, fishermen had been released after paying fines when they were working during China’s off-season.
He added that Taiwanese fishing boats need to raise their alert level, and the coast guard will also strengthen its patrols.
“The Coast Guard also calls on the main side not to exploit political factors to deal with this situation,” Hsieh added.
The country’s consulate general in Guangzhou will help the detained Indonesians, Judha Nugraha, director of citizen protection at the Indonesian foreign ministry, told Reuters.
This is not the first time Chinese authorities have detained a Taiwanese fishing vessel after operating in the country’s waters, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.
A Taiwanese official familiar with the island’s security planning told Reuters that authorities had issued alerts to fishing and transportation authorities across Taiwan to be aware of “potential risks” amid frequent Chinese coast guard activities in the area, including near Japan and the Philippines.
It is not uncommon for Taiwan and China to seize fishing boats that infringe on each other’s borders. So far this year, Taiwan has seized five such fishing boats from China, according to Taiwan’s coast guard.
Chinese coast guard and maritime security forces have been operating regularly around Kinmen since February after two Chinese fishermen died while trying to flee from Taiwan’s coast guard.