China’s coast guard detains Taiwan fishing boat near frontline islands

Taipei, Taiwan CNN —

The Chinese coast guard detained a Taiwanese fishing vessel in waters off China’s southeast coast on Tuesday night, in the latest flare-up of tensions around a group of frontline islands controlled by Taipei.

In a statement, Taiwan’s coast guard said the fishing boat, Tachinman 88, was intercepted by two Chinese coast guard vessels near the Kinmen islands, which lie just miles from the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou. All five crew members were also detained, according to Taiwan authorities.

China coast guard officers boarded the fishing boat and then escorted it to a nearby Chinese port, the Taiwanese statement said, adding that three Taiwan coast guard vessels answered a call for help but retreated to avoid conflict when they were outnumbered by their Chinese counterparts.

China’s coast guard confirmed it detained the boat, saying in a statement Wednesday that its Fujian division had “lawfully boarded, inspected and detained a Taiwanese fishing vessel suspected of illegal fishing in the offshore waters near Quanzhou.”

China coast guard spokesperson Liu Dejun accused the Taiwanese boat of violating a summer fishing moratorium by operating trawl nets in a prohibited area and using nets with mesh sizes much smaller than China’s national minimum requirements, thereby “damaging marine fisheries resources and the ecological environment.”

Related article Tensions high in the waters off Taiwan islands visible from China’s shore. But for locals, life goes on

The Chinese statement did not mention the status of the crew members.

China’s ruling Communist Party claims self-governing Taiwan as its territory despite having never controlled it, and