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Taiwan is calling for the release of a Taiwanese fishing boat and its crew after Chinese authorities seized it on Tuesday, according to multiple reports.
Taiwan Coast Guard Said China dispatched two patrol boats to the scene of the seizure of the Dajinman 88, but Chinese vessels blocked them and broadcast warnings not to interfere.
About an hour later, Taiwan’s Coast Guard vessels withdrew to avoid escalating the situation.
The vessel was off the Chinese coast in the Taiwan Strait, not far from the Taiwanese island of Kinmen. It was fishing for squid in Chinese territorial waters during a Chinese ban. Reuters reported.Citing officials’ statements.
Taiwan is now calling for the release of the crew and vessel, with a senior coast guard official urging China not to use “political elements” in its handling of the situation, according to Reuters.
Rising maritime tensions
China and Taiwan have previously seized each other’s ships suspected of trespassing, but this incident highlights rising maritime tensions between the two countries.
China considers Taiwan to be its territory and claims much of the South China Sea, a key shipping route.
China also enacted a law last month allowing its coast guard to seize foreign ships suspected of entering its territorial waters.
According to NPRChina has stepped up patrols in the Taiwan Strait over the past two years to exert pressure on the tiny island of Kinmen.
The island is about 185 miles southeast of mainland Taiwan, but much closer to China – about five miles. As Business Insider’s Benjamin Brimelow reported, the island is one of Taiwan’s islands that is farther from the mainland and therefore more vulnerable to a Chinese invasion.
“With each step, the idea that there is no buffer zone between Taiwan and China becomes more normalized,” Gregory Poling, a South China Sea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told NPR.
Grey Zone Provocation
Tensions rose in February after two Chinese fishermen were killed off Kinmen island during a pursuit by Taiwanese coastal authorities. As The Guardian reported at the time:.
Tuesday’s incident was China’s latest maritime clash and came just days after a China Coast Guard vessel collided with a Philippine ship in the South China Sea.
Sari Arjo Havlen, an associate fellow on China’s foreign relations at the Royal Institute for Security Studies, said the action was one of many Chinese maritime “grey zone” provocations that threaten adversaries but stop short of an act of war.
She told Business Insider that the incident was an example of China’s attempts to “wear down” other countries into recognizing its maritime claims.