TAIPEI, June 6 (Reuters) – Taiwan said on Saturday that a Chinese coast guard ship and a survey ship had carried out the first coordinated operation to “provoke” Taiwan, in waters around strategically located islands in the South China Sea.
The Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands, a national park toward the northern end of the South China Sea and lightly defended by the coast guard, have emerged as a new pressure point in China’s ongoing military and quasi-military operations around Taiwan in an effort to assert Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
The islands between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance – more than 400 km (250 miles) – from Taiwan island.
Taiwan’s coast guard said in a statement that along with a Chinese coast guard ship that had approached the Pratas on Friday, a Chinese oceanographic survey vessel approached the islands on Saturday.
“This is the first observed instance of Chinese coast guard and survey vessels acting in coordination to provoke Taiwan,” it said.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China considers Taiwan and the Pratas, an atoll with no civilian population, as its territory. Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
The Chinese coast guard vessel broadcast that it was conducting law enforcement operations and that “Taiwan’s future lies in national reunification”, said Taiwan’s coast guard, which dispatched its own vessels in response.
It said the Taiwan ship broadcast back: “Stop undermining peace. You should return and pursue democracy – that is the proper way to serve your country.”
China is trying to create a “false illusion” of jurisdiction over the area, the coast guard said. “Taiwan’s maritime sovereignty brooks no provocation.”
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; Editing by William Mallard)
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