In perhaps the first incident of its kind, two Chinese fishermen died after being chased by Taiwan’s coast guard off the coast of Kinmen island, the Associated Press reported.
Kimmen is just three kilometres from the coast of mainland China and could be the first to fall in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
Taiwanese officials said that the boat was trespassing into their territory.
The fishermen on board tried to flee, resulting in the boat capsizing, officials added, saying that two of the four people on board were brought in dead at the hospital, while the other two are in a stable condition.
Chinese officials have criticised their Taiwanese counterparts, accusing Taipei of “forcefully seizing Chinese fishing vessels and using violent and dangerous methods against Chinese fishermen”.
Over the past few years, people in Kinmen have reported a major rise in the activities of Chinese sand dredging vessels. Over a five-year period beginning in 2017, Taiwan’s coast guard recorded 5,328 such instances. Armed with a new law, Taiwan is now seizing these vessels and putting their crews on trial.
China says it is fully within its rights to send dredging vessels into the Taiwan Strait because they constitute its territory.
In the recently concluded presidential election, Democratic Progressive party’s Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing regards as a “separatist”, won.
The Chinese government is unlikely to agree to a dialogue with the new dispensation. Both sides have had no formal communication since 2016. China suspended all communication at the time, infuriated by Taiwan’s refusal to acknowledge that Taiwan was a part of the mainland.
Xi Jinping has called for the “reunification” of Taiwan with China, and has signalled discontent with the prevailing situation through a show of military force, as it did after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in 2022.
China has been stepping up economic and diplomatic pressure, by luring away small states that recognise Taiwan, and sanctioning more Taiwanese companies, products and people.
