Taiwan is not ruling out ‘political warfare’ by China, coast guard says

TAIPEI – Taiwan’s coast guard said on May 19 that China could try to disrupt public morale on the island ahead of

President Lai Ching-te’s one-year anniversary

this week, after images surfaced on social media of a person planting a Chinese flag on a Taiwan beach.

China calls Mr Lai, who completes a year in office on May 20, a “separatist”, and has rebuffed his offers for talks.

Mr Lai rejects China’s sovereignty claims over the democratic and entirely separately governed island, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

Last week, Taiwan’s China policymaking Mainland Affairs Council said Beijing could hold more military drills to “stir up trouble” around the anniversary.

On May 18, images posted on Chinese social media showed a man who claimed to have sailed across the Taiwan Strait on a small boat, landing on a remote beach and planting a Chinese flag before returning to China. The video was later deleted.

On May 16, Taiwan’s coast guard said it had arrested two Chinese nationals after they sailed into Taiwan illegally on a rubber boat and landed on a beach on the island’s north-west coast.

Asked about the two incidents, Mr Hsieh Ching-chin, deputy head of Taiwan’s coast guard, said China has been taking the opportunity for a while now to carry out drills and use other pressure tactics.

“It cannot be ruled out that on the anniversary of President Lai’s inauguration, the Chinese communists will again use similar tactics and videos to engage in political warfare to disrupt the morale of our people,” he told reporters.

Mr Hsieh said the video of the flag planting was indeed taken on the beach in Taiwan’s Taoyuan. But whether the person was someone who crossed over from China, or was helped by someone in Taiwan to film it, was still being investigated.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. REUTERS