Taiwan says it has not stepped up military deployments on frontline islands

TAIPEI/KINMEN, Taiwan — Taiwan has not increased military deployments on frontline islands facing China and there is nothing unusual in the military situation around Taiwan, the defence ministry said on Wednesday (Feb 21) amid a rise in tensions with Beijing.

Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory despite the island's rejection, has been wary of efforts by Beijing to ramp up pressure on Taipei following last month's election of Lai Ching-te as president, a man Beijing considers a dangerous separatist.

China's coast guard on Sunday began regular patrols around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands after two Chinese nationals died trying to flee Taiwan's coast guard after their boat entered prohibited waters.

On Monday, China's coast guard boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat in waters close to Kinmen, a move Taiwan denounced as causing "panic".

Speaking at a regular news briefing in Taipei, Taiwan defence ministry intelligence office Huang Ming-chieh said there was currently "nothing abnormal" in China's military movements around Taiwan.

Lee Chang-fu, deputy head of the ministry's joint operations planning department, added that there was no increase in Taiwan's deployments on the offshore islands, which also includes the Matsu archipelago further up the Chinese coast from Kinmen.

The ministry reiterated it will not intervene in the situation around Kinmen to avoid further escalation in tensions, but is making plans with the coast guard for possible "new scenarios".

"Our navy and the defence forces of the offshore islands will conduct exercises and preparations in response to the situation," said ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang.

"The purpose is to hope that in the face of the overall threat situation, it can be