Taiwan and mainland China coastguards engage in close Dongsha Island encounter
Dongsha Islands in the
South China Sea on the weekend, the latest in a
series of incidents that Taipei sees as a deliberate test of its maritime response.
According to Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration, the confrontation began on Saturday afternoon when its Dongsha command detected the mainland vessel 3102 sailing southward towards the island group, which is administered by Taiwan but also claimed by Beijing.
'The Chinese vessel was first spotted around 2.50pm on August 2, approximately 28.1 nautical miles northwest of Dongsha Island,' the administration said on Monday. 'Based on its trajectory and speed, our Dongsha command judged that the vessel was on course to enter our waters.'
Repeated radio broadcasts ordering the vessel to turn away were ignored, so Taiwan sent the 1,000-tonne Hsun Hu No 8 armed patrol ship to shadow the mainland boat. By around 5.34pm, the mainland vessel had reached a position just 10.3 nautical miles southwest of Dongsha Island.
'At around 6pm, the Chinese coastguard ship shut off its
automatic identification system (AIS) in an apparent attempt to evade detection,' the administration said. Taiwan's patrol vessel continued parallel monitoring, using shipboard radar to track the vessel's movements, it said.
Roughly an hour later, the mainland vessel reactivated its AIS and abruptly changed course, heading north. 'At one point during the stand-off, the two ships were separated by just one nautical mile,' the agency noted.
The mainland vessel withdrew at around 3.45pm on Sunday, sailing north-northwest at nine knots from a position about 27.9 nautical miles north of Dongsha Island.
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