TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) on Saturday (Feb. 17) denied the existence of maritime boundaries around Kinmen County, a move that experts say is designed to exert control over the Taiwan Strait.

The TAO stated that there are no "restricted" or "prohibited" waters around Xiamen and Kinmen. Experts believe that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using last week's deadly capsizing of a Chinese speedboat to continue to push its claims to the entire Taiwan Strait, justify illegal cross-border crossing of its fishing boats, and attempt to gain legitimacy for future gray zone operations, reported CNA.

A Chinese speedboat intruded into the waters around Kinmen waters on Feb. 14 and was pursued by the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). After the boat's pilot refused a request to stop for inspection, the vessel capsized, killing two of the four Chinese onboard.

In Saturday's statement, the TAO said "fishermen on both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been operating in traditional fishing areas around Xiamen-Kinmen since ancient times, and there is no such thing as 'prohibited or restricted waters.'"

Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), the acting deputy CEO for research at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), told CNA Taiwan and China have for many years had a tacit understanding that the waters around Kinmen, Matsu, and other outlying islands are restricted. However, Shen said that this latest statement by the TAO is in effect saying this tacit understanding no longer stands.

Shen pointed out that such an announcement is equivalent to Beijing's previous declaration that there is "no median line in the Taiwan Strait" and is intended to promote the territorialization of the Taiwan Strait by claiming that Kinmen and Matsu are part of China's internal waters. Shen said the declaration also seeks to legitimize the illegal fishing in Taiwan's waters by Chinese fishing boats and set the stage for future gray zone operations or military actions.

Yu Tsung-chi (余宗基), the former dean of Fu Hsing Kang College of National Defense University, told CNA that denying the existence of restricted waters around Kinmen is concrete evidence of the CCP’s destruction of the Taiwan Strait status quo. He said China's denial of the boundaries is contradicted by the fact many Chinese fishing vessels have been driven out or seized when intruding into Kinmen's restricted waters over the years.

Yu said that the CCP "took advantage of this opportunity to once again turn the Taiwan Strait into an inland waters and hyped up this incident." Yu believes that the CCP is currently facing internal and external risks and must demonstrate a tough stance externally to appease domestic nationalist sentiments.

The strong condemnation of Taiwan is also seen as an attempt to divert attention from the mismanagement of fishing vessel issues by CCP officials, said Yu.

To counter the CCP's attempt to territorialize the Taiwan Strait, Yu recommended the government internationalize the issue. Yu suggested that the CGA publish footage of the encounter with the speedboat as soon as possible to demonstrate that the authorities were enforcing the law.

Yu added that Taiwan should also seek support from neighboring countries in jointly condemning the CCP's latest move and compare its tactics to those used against the Philippines in the South China Sea.