Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Coast Guard Administration
IN SPITE OF appearances otherwise, Coast Guard cooperation continues between Taiwan and China, specifically with regard to rescue efforts by the Taiwanese Coast Guard directed at Chinese vessels in distress. This occurs in spite of efforts by the CCP to depict the Taiwanese Coast Guard as harassing Chinese fishing vessels.
There are several recent incidents involving the Taiwanese Coast Guard coming to the aid of Chinese vessels. The first involved 17 Chinese sailors rescued from an abandoned cargo ship. The Yu Zhou Qi Hang was abandoned 2.4 nautical miles north-northwest of Cape Yehliu three hours after setting out from Keelung for Zhangzhou in China’s Fujian Province, due to weather conditions from the approaching Typhoon Kong-Rey.
Subsequently, authorities sought to mitigate potential damage from the cargo onboard the ship. Fuel was removed in order to prevent potential environmental damage to the surrounding area. The ship contained 247 tons of heavy oil, 37 tons of diesel, and 6,280 liters of lubricating oil. The ship also had three gantry cranes on it.
Originally, plans were to tow the ship away, but this proved impossible due to the weather conditions. At risk from pollution were fishing harbors nearby such as Dongao, Guikong, and Yehliu. The Kuosheng nuclear power plant was also at risk.
In August, the Taiwanese Coast Guard participated in a rescue operation for a Chinese fisherman who fell overboard on October 10th. This began after the Taiwanese Coast Guard was notified of the missing fishermen by the Chinese Coast Guard. The search continued from October 10th to October 13th, with the Taiwanese Coast Guard continuing to search even after the Chinese Coast Guard called off its own search.
Shortly thereafter, China announced a series of military exercises that were framed as a response to Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te’s National Day speech. This was intended to frame Lai’s comments as provocative and, in this way, warranting a military response. Even so, evidently a day prior, it was still possible for the Taiwanese and Chinese Coast Guards to cooperate in a rescue operation.
Photo credit: Presidential Office/CC BY 2.0
In August, the Taiwanese Coast Guard also participated in a search for three Chinese sailors who fell overboard. This, too, occurred in March after a Chinese fishing vessel capsized and six crew went missing.
But even if cooperation continues to take place between the Taiwanese and Chinese Coast Guards on rescue cooperation, one has observed a stark increase in intrusions by Chinese Coast Guard vessels into the maritime domain of outlying islands of Taiwan in the past half year. This occurred after a Chinese fishing vessel intruding in Kinmen territorial waters in February attempted to flee, resulting in a collision with a Taiwanese Coast Guard vessel that left two fishermen dead.
The Chinese government has used the incident as pretext to escalate grey area activity around Taiwan. This has occurred through increased intrusions into Taiwanese waters, as well as searches of Taiwanese civilian ferries. With the latter, China may be attempting to engender the perception that it can conduct a blockade of Taiwan at any time.
The Taiwanese Coast Guard was criticized for not immediately disclosing that the two deaths occurred through a collision and, in this way, ceding the narrative to China. As such, after the incident, the Taiwanese Coast Guard has stated that it will order body cameras to allow for footage of such incidents to be released in the future, in order to make it clearer what occurs at the high seas, and avoid giving China pretext to escalate.
The Taiwanese Coast Guard has also begun to call for civilian volunteers to participate in patrols. This would be a means of doubling down on the civilian nature of the Taiwanese Coast Guard, even as there are growing concerns about the civilian-military fusion of the Chinese Coast Guard and People’s Liberation Army Navy, to counter militarization through firmly civilian means. Indeed, it may not be surprising that to avoid military escalation, the Taiwanese military also announced it would not be increasing activity in response to such accidents after the February deaths.
But the Taiwanese Coast Guard would perhaps also be well-served by publicizing incidents of cooperation with the Chinese Coast Guard, to show how cooperation does occur even if the CCP has a clear interest in politicizing such incidents to escalate military activity.