Three crew members of a Chinese language fishing boat went lacking on Saturday (Aug 17, 2024) after their vessel collided with an unidentified ship and sank off the coast of a Taiwanese island, Taiwan’s coast guard mentioned.
China claims Taiwan as a part of its territory and relations between the 2 international locations have deteriorated lately.
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A collection of incidents involving fishing boats alongside the slim waterway separating Taiwan and China have heightened tensions.
The most recent incident occurred early Saturday when the Chinese language-flagged ship “Min Lengthy Yu 60877” sank after colliding with an unidentified vessel about 6.5 nautical miles off the coast of the Kinmen Islands, Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration mentioned in an announcement.
“There have been seven crew members on board. 4 had been rescued and three are lacking,” he mentioned.
He mentioned a patrol boat despatched to the world failed to search out the lacking crew.
“Those that fell into the ocean weren’t discovered,” the assertion added. Taiwan’s coast guard and its Chinese language counterparts had been finishing up “an expanded search and rescue” in close by waters.
Kinmen County is run by Taiwan, however is situated simply 5 kilometers (three miles) from the Chinese language coastal metropolis of Xiamen.
A deadly incident involving a Chinese language ship close to Kinmen on February 14 has triggered a months-long dispute between Taiwan and China.
A ship capsized whereas being pursued by Taiwan’s coast guard, killing two Chinese language crew members, a transfer Beijing blamed on Taipei.
The 2 sides reached a settlement in July after negotiations over the incident, agreeing that the reason for demise was “drowning.”
