The China Coast Guard has announced that it will strengthen patrols in the waters around Taiwan's remote island of Kinmen Island. The move is a response to last week's incident in which a Chinese fishing boat capsized and killed two people on the island's coast during a crackdown by Taiwanese authorities.
On the 14th of this month, a Chinese fishing boat capsized in the waters near Kinmen Island, located off the coast of Xiamen in southern China's Fujian Province, during a crackdown by the Taiwanese side, killing two of the four people on board.
Kinmen Island is under the effective control of the Taiwanese authorities, who have established ``forbidden zones'' and ``restricted zones'' that prohibit Chinese ships from entering the coast without permission, and Taiwan says there were no problems with its response.
In response, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, which is in charge of Taiwan policy in the Chinese government, strongly criticized Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party government on the same day, calling it a ``malicious incident.'' ``There is no such thing as a ``restricted zone'' in the first place.''
Furthermore, on the 18th, a spokesperson for the China Coast Guard said, ``We will regularize patrols in the waters around Xiamen and Kinmen Island in Fujian Province to further maintain order in these waters and protect the lives, property, and safety of fishermen.'' I announced.
The announcement by the China Coast Guard to strengthen patrols was taken as a countermeasure to the accident, and a statement from the Taiwan Affairs Office revealed that there was a tacit understanding between China and Taiwan that there was a "forbidden zone" and It appears that they are trying to reduce the "restricted water area" to a mere facade and further increase pressure on the Democratic Progressive Party government.