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Coast Guard vows to protect fishermen in waters north of Taiwan

ROC Central News Agency

2014/03/02 16:17:10

Taipei, March 2 (CNA) The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has pledged that it will do whatever it can to protect Taiwanese fishing boats operating in East China Sea waters north of Taiwan.

'Protecting fishermen's safety is one of the CGA's key tasks,' said CGA Deputy Minister Cheng Chang-hsiun after a series of drills held jointly by the CGA and the military to show Taiwan's determination to patrol waters in the East China Sea.

According to Cheng, at least one Coast Guard vessel is on patrol every day in waters within the country's 'provisional law enforcement boundary,' a boundary Taiwan has set showing the part of its exclusive economic zone that it will defend.

It extends 270 nautical miles north of Taiwan but falls within the country's full exclusive economic zone to the east to avoid encroaching on Japanese territorial waters.

Cheng said the CGA has also signed a mutual assistance agreement with the Ministry of National Defense to help protect Taiwanese fishermen in the region, and the joint drills were organized to check on that arrangement.

The drills, Cheng said, were designed to test and verify the coordination between the military and Coast Guard in effectively enforcing the law of the Republic of China (Taiwan's formal name) in its waters and protecting local fishermen's safety and interests.

Tensions have risen in the East China Sea in the past year over the uninhabited Diaoyutai Islands, which are administered by Japan but also claimed by Taiwan and China.

China announced last November an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) that stretched far out over the East China Sea and included the Diaoyutais, a move seen by many as an attempt by Beijing to assert its territorial claims.

Despite the move, the drills held by Taiwan on Feb. 17 ventured into an area covered by China's ADIZ.

The CGA's Maritime Patrol Directorate General dispatched two vessels -- the Ho-shin and the Hsin Bei -- to the northern limit of the provisional law enforcement boundary, and they conducted different drills as they sailed further north before returning to Keelung on Feb. 19.

Aside from the CGA vessels, the Navy also dispatched frigates and the Air Force deployed aircraft to join in some of the drills, codenamed Tan Yang.

Pan Jin-jia, deputy chief of the Maritime Patrol Directorate General, described the mission on the Ho-shin on Feb. 17 as both a routine patrol and test of the Coast Guard's coordination with the Navy and Air Force.

Asked whether China's ADIZ would affect the agency's operations aimed at protecting the safety of Taiwanese fishing boats, Pan said it would not because the patrol boats were conducting their duties within the provisional law enforcement boundary.

'There are also no boundaries in emergency rescue operations,' Pan added.

(By Kelven Huang and Elizabeth Hsu)
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