The new multifunctional speedboat in Matsu, Taiwan, arrived in Matsu on Feb. 6, and future sea patrol enforcement will enhance the effectiveness of checking and seizing speedboats that cross the border, adding points to the effectiveness of law enforcement in Matsu waters. (Courtesy of the 10th Marine Patrol Unit of the Coast Guard / Central News Agency)
Reuters reports that the Chinese Communist Party is waging a new kind of war against Taiwan, and in this war, the Chinese Communist Party’s weapon is sea sand. Taiwanese officials say that the Chinese Communist Party intends to hold Taiwan’s maritime defense in check, destroy the livelihood of Matsu residents, and thus put pressure on Taiwan.
On a cold morning late last month, Taiwan’s sea patrol commander Lin Chie-ming stood on deck in his orange uniform, patrolling around Matsu, alerted to the encroachment of Chinese sand mining vessels into Taiwanese waters, with the looming Chinese coast just a few kilometers away, a Reuters reporter reported from a sea patrol boat.
Half an hour into the patrol, Lin’s nine-man team spotted two 3,000-ton sand mining vessels, while their 100-ton sea patrol boat appeared relatively small.
The two sand mining vessels were parked at the edge of Taiwan waters and were not marked with their names, so it was difficult for the patrolmen to identify the vessels when they looked through binoculars.
Lin said, “They (referring to the CCP sand mining vessels that invaded Matsu waters) consider this area to be part of CCP territory.” He added, “After we drive them away, they usually leave, but once we go far away, they come back.”
In this gray-zone war, “sand mining” is a weapon used by the Chinese Communist Party against Taiwan. Gray-area warfare is the use of unconventional tactics to drain the enemy’s energy without actually fighting.
Since June of last year, a large number of CCP sand mining vessels have been swarming into the waters around Matsu to anchor and dredge up large amounts of sea sand from the seabed for the CCP’s construction plans.
This tactic has consumed the energy of the Taiwan Coast Guard. The Coast Guard is conducting 24-hour patrols in order to expel the CCP vessels.
Taiwan officials and Matsu residents say the raid-style sand mining has other long-term pernicious effects, including hurting the local economy, damaging submarine communication cables, and intimidating residents and tourists. Local officials are also concerned that sand mining will ruin the surrounding marine ecology.
In addition to the area around Matsu, the Chinese Communist Party is also mining sand in shallow waters near the center line of the Taiwan Strait, which has always been considered an informal buffer zone between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, sea patrol officials said.
According to Sea Patrol data, in 2020, Taiwan expelled nearly 4,000 CCP sand mining vessels and sand carriers within the waters under its control, most of which were close to the median line, a 560 percent jump from the 600 CCP vessels expelled in the entire year of 2019.
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