By Yasin Gungor
ISTANBUL (AA) – Taiwan said Tuesday that the Chinese coast guard boarded, inspected and detained a Taiwanese fishing vessel while it was operating near Taiwan’s Kinmen islands off China's southeastern coast, according to local media.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration said it received a report from the Penghu-registered Tachinman 88 that it was 23.7 nautical miles (43.9 kilometers) northeast of Liaoluo Harbor when it was intercepted by Chinese vessels, Taiwan's Central News Agency reported.
Taiwanese authorities immediately dispatched two ships to provide emergency assistance, the agency said. Despite efforts to intercept the route, the ships were blocked by three Chinese coast guard vessels, it added.
Taiwan demanded the immediate release of the vessel, but the Chinese side demanded non-interference, Taiwanese state media said.
Four more Chinese vessels converged on the scene, prompting Taiwan's coast guard vessels to call off the pursuit to avoid escalating the conflict, the news agency said.
The Chinese coast guard steered the Tachinman 88 to a port in mainland China.
The Taiwanese side urged China to immediately release the vessel and its crew and not to politicize the incident, stressing the importance of maintaining cross-strait relations, the media outlet said.
Similar incidents have occurred in the past, with China's coast guard increasingly asserting its presence in waters near Taiwan's outlying islands.
China considers Taiwan a "breakaway province" and does not recognize the median line, an unofficial border that runs down the middle of the Taiwan Strait, which separates China and Taiwan, or its air defense identification zone (ADIZ), a region of airspace in which a country tries to identify, locate and control aircraft in the interest of national security, while Taipei has insisted on its independence since 1949.