Naming of Kinmen boat collision report sparks disorder in Legislature

Taipei, March 4 (CNA) A Legislative hearing on Monday descended into arguing over the naming of a report on the fatal capsizing of a Chinese speedboat last month after it collided with a Taiwanese Coast Guard patrol boat off the coast of Kinmen.

The Legislature's Internal Administration Committee had invited Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲), head of the Ocean Affairs Council that oversees the Coast Guard, to deliver a report on what it referred to as the "Kinmen Boat Ramming Case -- Law enforcement procedures that led to the capsizing and follow-up."

The report compiled by the Coast Guard and submitted to lawmakers ahead of the hearing, however, bore a revised name: "Report on the Feb. 14, 2024 accident [that occurred] while expelling a Chinese speedboat."

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As the meeting began, Kuomintang (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers crowded around a table, fighting to enter their names on a speaking list.

That forced the committee's co-convener, the KMT-aligned independent Kao Chin Su-mei (高金素梅), to select the speaking order by a random drawing.

Once order had been restored, after around 20 minutes, KMT lawmakers accused Kuan of pressuring the Coast Guard over the report's name, which they said was "changed without permission" in an act of disrespect to the Legislature.

Kuan, meanwhile, said that while the report's name had been changed by the Coast Guard, she supported the move, because "a boat collision and boat ramming are not the same thing."

"Boat ramming" is the term China would most like to use for what happened, she said.

The hearing was held in response to a Feb. 14 incident in which Taiwan's Coast Guard responded to the presence of a Chinese boat that had entered prohibited waters off the coast of Kinmen.

According to the Coast Guard, the Chinese boat crew refused its request to board and inspect their boat, and later fled "in a zigzagging fashion" with the Coast Guard vessel in pursuit.

Q&A/Taiwan and China's dispute over the waters around Kinmen

The chase lasted for more than a minute, before the escaping vessel suddenly took a sharp right turn and the tail of its boat collided with the front right side of the patrol boat, according to the Coast Guard's account.

The force of the collision caused the speedboat to capsize, throwing its crew of four into the water, of which two were rescued and the other two were found unconscious and later declared dead, the Coast Guard said.

The incident, which was not captured on video, sparked a furious response from Beijing and a rise in tensions surrounding Kinmen, which is located less than 10 kilometers off the coast of the Chinese city of Xiamen.

The capsizing incident is being investigated by the Kinmen District Prosecutors Office.

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