‘DEEPLY DESTABILIZING’: The coast guard would handle expelling China maritime militia vessels that enter Taiwan’s territorial waters, the national defense minister said
- By Ben Blanchard / Reuters
The military is monitoring a series of Chinese live-fire drills along the country’s coast this week, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said yesterday while accusing China of stoking tensions.
Starting from Thursday, the China Maritime Safety Administration announced no-sail notices for five areas, from the South China Sea up to the northeastern province of Liaoning, but none around Taiwan itself.
The closest area to Taiwan is off China’s eastern province of Zhejiang. The drills are scheduled to last all week, according to the notices.
The name of the Ministry of National Defense is pictured at the ministry in Taipei in an undated photograph.Photo: CNA
Speaking to reporters at the Legislative Yuan, Koo said the preliminary assessment is that these activities were firing drills by coastal artillery and related units.
“However, we adhere to the principle of ‘anticipating the enemy as broadly as possible,’ so we will continue to closely monitor their activities, whether firing or military training,” he said.
China’s repeated military drills aimed at stirring tensions in the Indo-Pacific region warrant close scrutiny and condemnation, he added.
President William Lai (賴清德) in his National Day speech on Saturday said Taiwan cherishes peace but will not give up its freedom, and there must be respect for the right of Taiwanese to exist.
China condemned his remarks, as it always does.
While China has not linked the drills this week to Lai’s speech, on Sunday the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said he was exaggerating the threat from China and trying to “seek independence through force.”
“The People’s Liberation Army’s regular training and exercises around Taiwan are meant to deter reckless ‘Taiwanese independence’ moves and outside interference, and to safeguard the security and well-being of the Taiwanese people. This is entirely justified,” it said.
China’s military operates around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, although it has not held full war games since late December last year, which were in response to an US$11 billion arms sale announced by Washington, the largest ever.
Last week, the US Department of State said China’s maritime actions off Taiwan’s east coast are “deeply destabilizing” and only worsen tension, after Reuters reported the first known sighting of a Chinese militia boat in those waters in August.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) yesterday said those waters belonged to China and its activities there were “beyond reproach.”
“It has never been China that stirs up trouble and undermines stability in this sea,” she told reporters, without elaborating.
Meanwhile, during a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chien-pin (黃建賓) raised concerns over the report of the Chinese maritime militia vessel in August.
Huang asked whether the navy or the coast guard would be responsible for firing the first shot if a militia vessel entered Taiwan’s territorial waters.
Koo said the Coast Guard Administration would take the lead in handling and expelling Chinese maritime militia fishing boats and coast guard vessels that enter Taiwan’s waters, while the navy would provide support under an established assistance agreement.
Additional reporting by Huang Ching-hsuan