Taiwan says Chinese man detained after possible ‘intrusion’

This handout from the Taiwan Coast Guard taken and released on October 14, 2024 shows Taiwan Coast Guard personnel escorting a Chinese national (in blue), who was caught after traveling to the outlying Menghu islet in Kinmen County, onto a coast guard vessel near Kinmen. Agence France-Presse

TAIPEI — Taiwan’s coast guard said Monday it had detained a Chinese man on one of its outlying islands after a possible “intrusion” coinciding with China’s military drills.

China has deployed fighter jets, warships and coast guard vessels around Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of its territory, in its latest large-scale drills.

The man was detected Monday morning in a rubber boat making the “illegal crossing” to the tiny island of Menghu, the coast guard said in a statement.

READ: China says it is launching military drills around Taiwan

“It is not ruled out that the small boat stowaway attempt could be a grey zone intrusion linked to the military exercise,” the coast guard said in a statement, referring to tactics which fall short of a direct act of war.

Menghu, which is part of the Taipei-administered Kinmen islands, is about six kilometres (four miles) from mainland China’s port city of Xiamen in Fujian province.

Video released by Taiwan’s coast guard showed its personnel tying the man’s wrists with plastic zip ties and escorting him onto a vessel.

READ: Taiwan says on ‘alert’ as China aircraft carrier detected to its south

The man and his boat were taken to Kinmen for investigation.

The man said he was in his 40s and from China’s southern province of Guangdong, and was “seeking freedom due to political persecution”, a coast guard officer told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

The coast guard said it had “heightened its vigilance” and was constantly monitoring “security hotspots” and carrying out “real-time tracking of maritime targets”.