Taiwan boatmen wary of China's wrath after fatal Kinmen incidents

Chinese coast guard steps up activities in surrounding waters after fishermen’s deaths

- Yip Wai Yee

Taiwanese boat operator Lu Wen-hsiung is "extra cautious" when he takes his vessels out for tours these days.

The 56-year-old, who works and lives in Taiwan's outlying Kinmen archipelago, does not want to risk the wrath of Taiwan's giant neighbour, China, whose coastline is clearly visible just 3km away at its closest.

"I don't want to give the Chinese coast guard any reason to target me," said Mr Lu, who owns and operates three speedboats that he rents out for fishing trips or tours around the islands.

"I'm worried that they might board my boats - we know that they've done that kind of thing before." This is why he avoids nearing the edge of what Taiwan calls its "restricted waters" and "prohibited waters" around Kinmen.

Taiwan, which has jurisdiction over Kinmen, off the coast of Xiamen city in China's Fujian province, and Matsu, 12km off the coast of Fuzhou, Fujian's capital, had unilaterally announced "restricted waters" around these islands in 1992, in a move to bolster its maritime enforcement efforts.

These outposts of self-ruled Taiwan are about 200km away from the main Taiwan island. China views Taiwan as its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to reunify with it.

Wherever possible, Taiwan defines its restricted waters as 24 nautical miles from its coastline, while its prohibited waters are 12 nautical miles from its shores, akin to the concept of territorial waters set out by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Where the coastline is much closer to China, such as in Kinmen, the distances from the shore for its restricted and prohibited waters are the same, so where only 3km separates the Chinese and Kinmen coastlines, both the prohibited and restricted waters are 1.5km from the shore or midway to the Chinese coastline.