Taiwan's coast guard is on alert after three Chinese government ships crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait.
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00:00The Coast Guard is stepping up monitoring of Chinese ships operating around the Taiwan Strait.
00:06That's after three of China's Coast Guard vessels crossed the unofficial line between the two countries.
00:13Rick Glowart is following the story for us from the north coast of Taiwan.
00:18Rick, what do we know about this incident?
00:23Well, quite a lot actually.
00:25Both sides have been pretty transparent about what went on across the median line,
00:30the unofficial line that separates the Chinese side and the Taiwan side of the Taiwan Strait.
00:36China's state media has released a video of two Coast Guard vessels and one emergency vessel
00:43that went on a 30-hour mission and went three nautical miles over that sensitive median line.
00:49Taiwan's Coast Guard meanwhile has confirmed that this mission took place
00:54and that it monitored and said that they are determined to protect Taiwan's sovereignty.
00:59Of course, confrontations at sea between Taiwan and China are on the rise.
01:04This is as China continues to throw its weight about in the region to assert its claims over Taiwan.
01:12And you might remember earlier this year there was that deadly incident in Jinmen,
01:16an outlying island of Taiwan close to the Chinese coast,
01:19where a Coast Guard chased by the Taiwanese landed with two Chinese nationals dying.
01:25Since then, China has said that it will be enforcing its own maritime law in waters administered by Taiwan.
01:33Taiwan in response has said that it will boost its patrols and that it is ready to protect its sovereignty.
01:41So Rick, should we be expecting more confrontations at sea like this?
01:47Well, we may well see more of this, of course, because China's fishing season has just reopened.
01:55As we speak, tens of thousands of fishing vessels are leaving Chinese ports.
02:00They're heading out into the South China Sea, but they're also heading into the waters near Taiwan.
02:05Taiwan's Coast Guard has already said that it's going to be upping its patrols
02:09to check that these boats do not encroach on Taiwan's waters.
02:13And this is all seen as part of China's grey zone warfare tactics.
02:18That's actions that China takes to intimidate Taiwan to push its claims of sovereignty over Taiwan
02:25without actually resorting to military conflict.
02:28And, of course, this sort of thing, you know, these Chinese boats in Taiwan's waters,
02:32puts Taiwan in a very difficult position.
02:35It's got a very delicate balancing act now to make sure that it does assert its sovereignty,
02:40stand its ground, but without causing an incident that China could use to escalate and even cause a conflict.