Three crew members of a Chinese fishing boat went missing on Saturday (August 17, 2024) after their ship collided with an unidentified vessel and sank off the coast of a Taiwanese island, the Taiwanese coast guard said.
China claims self-governing Taiwan as its own territory and relations between the two have deteriorated in recent years.
Also read:Where do China-Taiwan relations stand? | Explained
A series of incidents involving fishing boats on the narrow waterway separating Taiwan and China have raised tensions.
The latest incident occurred on Saturday morning when the Chinese-flagged boat “Min Long Yu 60877” sank after colliding with an unidentified vessel about 6.5 nautical miles off the coast of Kinmen Island, Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration said in a statement.
“There were seven crew members on board the ship. Four were rescued and three are missing,” it said.
It said a patrol boat sent to the area could not locate the missing crew.
“Those who fell into the sea have not been located.” The Taiwanese coast guard and its Chinese counterpart were conducting “extensive search and rescue” operations in nearby waters, the statement said.
Kinmen County is administered by Taiwan but is located just five kilometres (three miles) from the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen.
A fatal incident involving a Chinese boat near Kinmen on Feb. 14 sparked a months-long dispute between Taiwan and China.
A boat capsized while being pursued by the Taiwanese coast guard, killing two Chinese crew members, for which Beijing blamed Taipei.
After negotiating the incident, both parties agreed in July that the cause of death was “drowning”.