Taipei, June 11 (EFE).- Taiwan arrested a former member of the Chinese Navy who arrived in Taipei aboard a boat with the possible intention of testing the island’s defensive capabilities, official Taiwanese sources reported this Tuesday.
The event occurred last Sunday morning, when the Taiwan Coast Guard (CGA) detected the incursion of a “suspicious boat” six nautical miles (eleven kilometers) off the coast of Tamsui, north of the capital, according to to a statement released by the organization.
The boat later entered the Tamsui River, which flows through the west of the city, and collided with several boats at the district’s ferry terminal; CGA agents confiscated the boat – registered in China – and “immediately” detained the man, who is under judicial investigation.
According to images released by the CGA, the detainee, a 60-year-old man with the last name Ruan, surrendered to the authorities without resisting.
In statements to the media, the Minister of Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, Kuan Bi-ling, assured this Tuesday that he was an “elegant” and “well-dressed” individual, with experience in the Chinese Navy and as a captain. of ship.
Over the last year there have been 18 cases similar to this one, most of them on the peripheral islands of Taiwan, said the official, who did not rule out that it is a deliberate attempt by the Chinese authorities to test the island’s response mechanisms to maritime raids.
“Judging by the long-term accumulation of cases, we cannot rule out that this is a test,” said Kuan, who admitted “negligence” in the handling of the case by the island authorities.
Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo spoke along the same lines, warning that this incident could constitute a new example of the “gray zone” tactics used by China to pressure Taiwan.
“These ‘gray zone’ tactics have always existed and, of course, we must make the relevant clarifications. We must always maintain vigilance and do not rule out the possibility of taking countermeasures,” Koo said.
The Tamsui River is considered a strategic point as it acts as a gateway to Taipei, where the Presidential Office and the headquarters of Taiwan’s most important institutions are located.
In fact, the Taiwanese Army carries out frequent maneuvers in the Tamsui River estuary, the port of Taipei and the beach of Bali – the capital’s “defense triangle” – to test the defensive capacity of these locations, indicated the state agency of CNA news.
In statements to this medium, Su Tzu-yun, a researcher at the Institute of National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), considered it unlikely that Ruan would travel the 200 kilometers that separate China from Taiwan in a speedboat, and indicated that the safest thing would be is that his boat was thrown by a larger one halfway along the road. EFE
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