A Chinese man detained after his speedboat illegally entered a Taipei port is a former navy captain who may have been probing the island’s defenses, senior Taiwanese officials said Tuesday.
Taiwan’s coast guard detained the man on Sunday in the coastal neighborhood of Tamsui after his boat entered a river that flows into Taipei, an incident that occurred amid continuing tensions between Taiwan and China.
China considers the democratically governed island its own territory, a claim Taipei rejects.
Kuan Bi-ling, head of Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, which runs the coast guard, told reporters in parliament that the man was “quite refined and well-presented” and had previously served as a captain in the Chinese navy.
Over the past year or so, there have been 18 similar cases, most involving Taiwan-controlled islands off the Chinese coast, Kuan said.
“Looking at the accumulated cases in the past, we cannot rule out that this is a test,” he said, referring to Taiwan’s ability to detect such vessels.
Neither China’s Taiwan Affairs Office nor its defense ministry immediately responded to requests for comment.
Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo, also speaking to reporters in Parliament, said the boat incident could be another example of China’s “grey zone” tactics against the island.
Taiwan has complained in recent years that China has been using so-called gray zone warfare, designed to exhaust the enemy through irregular tactics without resorting to open combat, such as floating surveillance balloons over the island.
“These gray zone tactics have always existed,” Koo said. “We must always maintain vigilance and cannot rule out the possibility of taking countermeasures.”
In March, two Taiwanese fishermen entered Chinese waters near the Kinmen Islands, controlled by Taiwan and located off the Chinese coast. One of them, a Taiwanese soldier, remains detained in China, while the other was released shortly after.
