China said on Sunday it would “increase” its patrols near an island near its coast but controlled by Taiwan, after the killing of two Chinese men pursued by Taiwanese authorities this week.
This incident occurred on Wednesday near the Kinmen Islands. They are located just a few kilometers from the city of Xiamen in Fujian Province (eastern China) and are controlled by the Taiwanese authorities.
According to Chinese authorities, a fishing boat with four people on board was chased out of the island's waters by Taiwanese authorities, causing the crew to fall into the water. Two people died.
The Taiwan Coast Guard said they tracked the speedboat from mainland China, which entered waters off Kinmen where they could not reach. The boat then capsized, they said.
“The Fujian Coast Guard will increase the maritime law enforcement presence and conduct regular patrols in the waters around Xiamen and Kinmen,” said Gan Yu, a spokesman for the Chinese Coast Guard.
The aim of this decision is to “maintain good operations in the affected waters and protect the lives and property of fishermen,” he emphasized in a press release.
After the tragedy, China's Taiwan Affairs Office called on the island's authorities to “immediately shed light on the incident.”
On the other hand, the Mainland Affairs Council, the Taiwanese body responsible for relations with Beijing, defended its coast guard and regretted that the boat's crew “refused to cooperate.”
China considers Taiwan to be one of its provinces that has not yet succeeded in reunification with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
While Beijing hopes for “peaceful reunification” with the island's 23 million residents, it has never refused to rule out the use of force to achieve this.
Relations between Beijing and Taipei have been strained since 2016 and since the election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who is pro-independence and particularly positive about loose cultural ties with mainland China.
The election of his successor Lai Ching-te from the same party in January 2024 has further strained bilateral relations.