Taipei. A Chinese man arrested after his speedboat illegally entered a Taipei port is a former navy captain who may have been investigating the island’s defenses, senior Taiwanese officials said Tuesday.
Taiwan’s coast guard arrested 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 ongoing tensions between Taiwan and China.
China views the democratically governed island as its own territory, a claim Taipei rejects.
Kuan Biling, 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 there have been 18 similar cases, mostly 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 these types of 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 an 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 our vigilance and cannot rule out the possibility of taking countermeasures.”
In March, two Taiwanese fishermen went missing in Chinese waters near the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, which lie off the coast of China. One, a Taiwanese military officer, remains detained in China, while the other was released shortly after.
INT/ag.agencias.rt.europapress/rp.
