Taiwan's Coast Guard shadows trespassing Chinese ships off Kinmen

Taipei, Aug. 25 (CNA) The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) on Monday twice ushered four trespassing China Coast Guard vessels out of Taiwan-controlled waters off the offshore Kinmen County.

The CGA's Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch at 9:30 a.m. detected Chinese coast guard ships 14608, 14527, 14603 and 14515 approaching Taiwan-controlled, restricted waters, southwest of Damaoshan, Kinmen County, the branch said in a statement on Monday.

The intruders sailed into the area in a single file, and the CGA immediately shadowed them with ships standing by nearby and broadcast radio warnings demanding that they leave.

The same four Chinese ships again intruded into the area at 3 p.m., prompting the CGA to again dispatch ships to warn them away.

Both intrusions lasted two hours, according to the CGA.

On both occasions, the Chinese ships turned off their automatic identification systems, the CGA said.

On Sunday, the CGA also reported similar intrusions by the same four Chinese ships.

The most recent incursion was the 91st such intrusion into waters off Taiwan's offshore islands this year, the CGA said.

In a statement released Monday, the CGA urged its Chinese counterpart to "immediately stop disrupting regional peace and stability."

"The Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch will continue to maintain a high level of surveillance, response, and deployment capabilities to monitor and track the movements of Chinese Coast Guard vessels," the CGA said.

"It will uphold a firm law enforcement stance and respond comprehensively to safeguard national sovereignty and maritime security," the CGA added.

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 to 10,000 meters from the shorelines of the archipelago.