Hours after China seized a Taiwanese fishing boat carrying five people, the self-ruled island nation called upon Beijing to release the fishing vessel that was held by the Chinese side near Taiwanese outlying islands on Tuesday (July 2).
The seized vessel row coincided with a Taiwanese claim that a Chinese military drone hovered near an airport on a remote island. The Chinese coast guard has increased patrols around Taiwan’s Kinmen islands alongside rampant violation of Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).
The Kinmen islands are administered by Taipei but are located just five kilometres (three miles) from the Chinese mainland.
Taiwan’s coast guard said it received a report at 08:14 pm (1214 GMT) on Tuesday from the owner of a fishing boat that two Chinese coast guard vessels had intercepted it around 23.7 nautical miles (44 kilometres) from Kinmen’s Liaoluo port.
It dispatched two patrol vessels to try to rescue the fishing boat, along with a third for assistance, but one was blocked by Chinese coast guard ships, Taiwan’s coast guard said in a statement late Tuesday.
‘To avoid escalating the conflict, we have decided to stop the chase’, the coast guard said, adding the fishing boat was taken to China’s Weitou port.
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