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Taiwan strengthening patrols over territorial waters: official

ROC Central News Agency

2013/03/11 20:46:29

Taipei, March 11 (CNA) The head of Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration said Monday that his agency will improve communications with China in handling cross-Taiwan Strait crimes and will also increase its patrols of the country's territorial waters.

To effectively prevent cross-strait criminal activities, the administration will continue to work with China's law enforcement agencies to exchange information, Coast Guard chief Wang Jinn-Wang said at a legislative session.

He explained that the administration will strengthen ties with China's authorities through academic seminars and seminars where law enforcement agencies on the two sides can exchange ideas as part of efforts to expand criminal investigations overseas.

Wang said, meanwhile, that the Coast Guard will also strengthen patrol over Taiwan's territorial waters, including waters around the disputed Diaoyutai Islands and islands in the South China Sea.

He said Taiwan's government has repeatedly asserted its sovereignty over the Diaoyutai Islands, which are claimed by Taiwan, Japan, and China, but currently administered by Japan.

Wang said the Coast Guard Administration's position is to solve the issue in a peaceful and rational manner, and its priority is to protect the country's fishing rights in the area.

Taiwan has at least one Coast Guard ship patrolling fishing grounds in the region every day, Wang said.

As for Taiwan's defensive strength on its islands in the South China Sea, Wang said 40-millimeter guns and 120 mm mortars were deployed on Taiping Island -- the biggest of the Spratly Islands -- and the Pratas Islands last August and September.

In the South China Sea, Taiwan claims sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, the Paracel Islands, the Macclesfield Bank and the Pratas Islands.

Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei all claim large parts of the South China Sea, which is believed to sit atop vast deposits of natural gas and oil.

(By Liu Chiang-pan and Nell Shen)