Lawmaker proposes changing authority to demarcate prohibited waters

Taipei, April 26 (CNA) A lawmaker has proposed a legal amendment to transfer authority to demarcate prohibited and restricted waters off Taiwan proper and Taiwan-controlled outlying islands from the defense ministry to the Ocean Affairs Council (OAC), arguing that it would augment law enforcement in those areas.

Legislator Chen Yeong-kang (陳永康) of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) crafted the draft legislation, which has not been sponsored, and held a public hearing on Friday.

In a written explanation accompanying the bill, Chen highlighted the fatal capsize of an unlicensed and unregistered Chinese speedboat in prohibited waters off the Kinmen Islands in February.

In the wake of the capsizing incident, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office publicly rejected the legality of Taiwan-controlled prohibited and restricted waters off the Kinmen Islands.

Kinmen and China’s Xiamen are separated by a distance of less than 10 kilometers.

Chen said that under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, the Ministry of National Defense is mandated to declare the scope of prohibited and restricted waters.

However, it is the Coast Guard Administration (CGA), a subordinate agency of the OAC, that is designated as the competent authority and tasked with patrolling and law enforcement in those areas, he added.

Since the purpose of delineating prohibited and restricted waters is to maintain order on the sea, not national defense, that task should be undertaken by the CGA, Chen argued.

Alexander Huang (黃介正), an associate professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said that transferring the task from a military agency to a law enforcement agency would not only signal that Taiwan has sovereignty over the overlapping waters but also de -escalate tensions.

However, Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑), deputy head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, said the proposed amendment “would not make much difference.”

Liang added that the prohibited and restricted waters have been enforced for more than three decades based on a tacit understanding between Taiwan and China, and that it is inappropriate to seek the other side’s validation through negotiations over the scope of the Taiwan-controlled waters due to unforeseen incidents.

The capsize of the Chinese boat on Feb. 14 was the result of a high-speed chase by Taiwan’s Coast Guard and resulted in the death of two Chinese crew members.

Beijing criticized Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) “brutal” handling of the incident and on Feb. 19, the Chinese coast guard boarded the Taiwanese Sunrise cruise ship.

In the month following the incident, Chinese coast guard vessels frequently entered Kinmen’s prohibited waters, claiming to be “legally” patrolling, but were expelled by vessels dispatched by their Taiwanese counterpart.