CGA vessels shadow 4 Chinese coast guard ships off Kinmen Islands

Taipei, May 28 (CNA) Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said Wednesday that it "expelled" four Chinese coast guard ships that intruded into Taiwan-controlled waters off the nation's outlying Kinmen County earlier that day.

The China Coast Guard vessels 14603, 14608, 14609 and 14513 sailed into "restricted waters" off the Kinmen Islands from the southeast of Liaoluo Bay and the southwest of Damao Mountain at 8:50 a.m., the CGA's Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch said in a statement.

In response, the branch dispatched patrol vessels 3505, 10081, 10039, and 10083 to shadow the Chinese ships and broadcast warnings demanding they leave the area, according to the statement.

The Chinese vessels left the area at 11:03 a.m., the branch said.

The branch rebutted a statement posted by the China Coast Guard on the social networking app WeChat, which claimed that the four ships were "conducting a routine patrol" in the area.

Wednesday's incident came on the heels on a similar event on Tuesday, when the same four Chinese ships entered the Taiwan-controlled waters and remained there for more than two hours before leaving, according to the branch, which also deployed vessels to shadow the Chinese ships that day.

Since Feb. 18, 2024, four days after the fatal capsizing of an unregistered speedboat that resulted in the deaths of two Chinese crew members, the China Coast Guard has incessantly intruded into Taiwan-controlled water off Kinmen, the branch said.

On average, such intrusions occur four times a month and last two hours each time, the branch added.

The speedboat was in restricted waters off Kinmen, resulting in the CGA dispatching a ship to give chase. A subsequent CGA investigation found that the two ships collided causing the four Chinese crew members to fall overboard.

Due to the proximity between Kinmen County and the Chinese city of Xiamen, China's territorial waters encompass all of Kinmen, leaving Taiwan with a compromise measure of demarcating "prohibited" and "restricted" waters around the Kinmen Islands that extend 1,500-10,000 meters from the shores of the archipelago.