TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's legislature on Monday (Dec. 18) passed an amendment that authorizes the seizure of sand dredgers from Taiwan's waters to combat the rampant dredging of sand from the country's coastal waters by Chinese ships.
To deter Beijing's gray zone warfare tactic of large-scale sand dredging conducted by Chinese vessels, the Legislative Yuan on Monday passed the third reading of an amendment to Article 36 of the Sand and Gravel Excavation Act (土石採取法), proposed by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘), reported Liberty Times. The amendment states that "vessels or other machinery and equipment used for the crime mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall be confiscated regardless of whether they belong to the perpetrator of the criminal act or not."
This new wording prevents criminal offenders from claiming the dredging vessel or equipment used was from another party, thereby evading legal consequences.
Tsai said on April 26, 2022, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) seized the Huayi No. 9 (華益九號) sand dredging vessel for illegally stealing sand 54 nautical miles (100 km) southwest of Penghu County's Cimei Township. The following year, the captain was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison and the dredging ship was confiscated.
The captain filed an appeal, and in the second instance, the original verdict was upheld. However, the confiscation of the dredging vessel was revoked for lack of evidence proving the owner of the dredging vessel's complicity, as it did not meet the criteria that assets used in the crime must belong to the "perpetrator" of the crime.
Tsai said that regarding the overturning of the confiscation verdict for the dredging vessel, the prosecution has already filed an appeal. He said this indicates the necessity for amendments to the relevant provisions to prevent the illegal dredging activities of such vessels effectively.
Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) on Monday uploaded a post to Facebook thanking the Legislative Yuan for the swift passage of the amendment allowing the confiscation of dredging vessels involved in illegal sand extraction, regardless of ownership by the perpetrator. Kuan said this also enhances the chances of legal support for the CGA's confiscation of the Chinese dredger Huayi No. 9.
Kuan said that with these regulations in place in the future, "If a sand dredging ship is caught, it will be confiscated. There is no room for escape from punishment."
Beijing has increasingly employed gray zone tactics in the form of deployments of large fleets of sand dredgers off Taiwan's outer islands. It has also increasingly dispatched military aircraft and naval vessels over the median line and inside Taiwan's air defense identification zone.
According to CSIS, gray zone tactics are “an effort or series of efforts beyond steady-state deterrence and assurance that attempts to achieve one’s security objectives without resorting to direct and sizable use of force."
