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A fatal episode off the coast of Kinmen, an island controlled through Taiwan, leaves Beijing with no opportunity to warn and rein in Taiwan’s president-elect.
By Chris Buckley and Amy Chang Dog
Reporting from Kinmen, Taiwan
A small island controlled through Taiwan, just a few miles off the coast of China, has lived for decades in a constant state of war readiness. At one point in 1958, troops were holed up in bunkers while communist forces fired thousands of shells. in them.
Today, Kinmen Island has a Taiwanese industry center with China and its deserted, weather-worn fortifications are tourist sites. Eight ferries a day take Taiwanese businessmen and visitors from Kinmen to mainland China.
But the sea around Kinmen has become tense again after two Chinese men aboard a speedboat were killed in the area last month while trying to flee a Taiwanese coast guard ship.
China’s coast guard responded by patrolling the island’s surroundings and briefly boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat last month. In mid-March, four ships arrived 3. 5 miles off the coast of Kinmen, entering what Taiwan calls a no-go zone. .
China said the patrols were meant to protect Chinese fishing vessels. But the patrols are also part of a broader strategy by China to hit Taiwan, an island democracy that Beijing claims as its territory, but without triggering a primary that would appeal to the United States.
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