China launches coast guard patrol east of Taiwan despite international pushback
By Lewis Jackson and Ben Blanchard
BEIJING/TAIPEI, July 4 (Reuters) – China announced on Saturday it had launched a new coast guard patrol east of Taiwan, drawing a sharp reaction from Taipei after a force operating off the island’s coast last month caused alarm in some Western capitals.
The Chinese army conducts almost daily operations around Taiwan, which Beijing considers its own territory. But China has begun using its coast guard to enforce its territorial claims to demand a legal basis for China’s actions, what Taiwan calls “legal rights.”
The fleet will conduct “law enforcement patrols” in the area, the China Coast Guard said in a statement, adding that it would strengthen such patrols in what China calls jurisdictional waters.
He added that the coast guard will “strictly protect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.”
TAIWAN CLAIMS NEW MOVEMENT ILLEGAL AND DISRUPTIVE
Taiwan’s government condemned the new patrol, saying it was “an illegal expansion of authority that violates international law and disrupts regional stability.”
“Chinese communists have no sovereignty or relevant rights in the waters east of Taiwan, have no jurisdiction over those waters, and none of their official vessels have any law enforcement authority there,” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which sets China policy, said in a statement. he said.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard said it tracked the two Chinese ships and positioned two of its own to sail alongside and monitor them.
In the statement, it was stated that as of mid-morning, the two Chinese ships were 54 nautical miles east of Hualien, Taiwan, which hosts a large air base, but were outside restricted waters.
The Taiwan Coast Guard “will continue to take all necessary measures to forcibly expel Chinese ships harassing our waters, resolutely defend national sovereignty, and ensure the security of our maritime areas.”
This is the second time in about a month that China, which considers democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has sent coast guard ships into waters off Taiwan’s east coast. This risks escalating the diplomatic dispute involving the United States, France, Germany and Britain.
China said the first operation in June was in response to Japan and the Philippines’ announcement that they would begin formal talks on maritime boundaries, which Beijing considers to concern Chinese waters off Taiwan.
Taiwan said on Wednesday that Taiwanese ships off its east coast should ignore the Chinese Coast Guard’s requests for boarding and inspection, and that if necessary, Taiwanese Coast Guard ships would intervene to prevent that from happening.
China does not recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty claims. Taiwan says China has no right to claim any sovereignty or jurisdiction over the island or its waters.
On Thursday, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources published what it called a “legal opinion” on the Japan-Philippines maritime border talks in English.
According to the opinion, it was stated that the two countries should discuss the issue with China and not contact Taiwan. “All other states will refrain from providing assistance to Japan and the Philippines.”
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei and Lewis Jackson in Beijing; Editing by William Mallard)
