Off the Kinmen Islands

China confiscates fishing boat from Taiwan

A representative of the Taiwanese coast guard explains to the media where the seizure took place.(Bild: APA/AP)

Military exercises and verbal threats from Beijing have intensified in recent months. Now the next escalation: on Tuesday, a Taiwanese fishing boat was seized by the Chinese coast guard near the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands.

Chinese officials boarded the boat and brought it to a Chinese port, as the Taiwanese coast guard announced on Wednesday. Taiwan had sent its own coast guard ships to assist and called on China to release the fishing boat. However, the Chinese ships replied that they should not interfere, it added.

Indonesians and Taiwanese on board
A Taiwanese official familiar with the matter explained that the Taiwanese boat had entered Chinese waters and was fishing during the Chinese closed season. Taiwan will now press for the release of the fishermen - two Taiwanese and three Indonesian nationals - as soon as possible. 

According to Chinese authorities, the coast guard detained the Taiwanese boat because the fishermen had violated a fishing ban and illegally used narrow nets. They were said to have damaged the fishing grounds and ecology in the area as a result.

Kinmen belongs to Taiwan, but is only a few kilometers from the Chinese mainland. China's coastguard had stepped up patrols there in recent months after two Chinese fishermen died in a chase with the Taiwanese coastguard in February.

A fishing boat off the Kinmen Islands(Bild: APA/AFP/I-Hwa CHENG)

Fishing boats are confiscated time and again - on both sides. However, the cases are usually put to rest with the payment of fines imposed for "illegal fishing".