TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A cross-party group of councilors on the outlying islands of Kinmen have called on Taiwan’s central government to allow them to communicate directly with Chinese authorities after recent confrontations increased tensions.
On Feb. 14, two Chinese nationals died after a Taiwan Coast Guard vessel engaged a fishing boat in a high-speed chase in the waters around the Taiwan-controlled islands. China responded with condemnation and the Coast Guard apologized after the incident. A Chinese coast guard vessel boarded a Taiwanese boat in the area on Monday (Feb. 19), further increasing tensions.
On Tuesday, members of the Kinmen Non-party Alliance (金門縣議會無黨籍聯盟) and the Kinmen Inter-party Alliance (金門縣議會跨黨派問政聯盟) released a joint statement, asking for the authority to communicate directly with Chinese authorities.
The group called on governments on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to authorize local authorities to communicate with one another to resolve misunderstandings through dialogue. The statement said both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family, and that more direct communication was needed to make sure this idea does not disappear.
Heads of the two alliances and independent councilors for Kinmen County Chen Yang-hu (陳泱瑚) and Hung Hung-pin (洪鴻斌) extended their condolences to the family members of the deceased and said they hoped the results of an investigation into the incident are released quickly. The councilors said payments should be made to the families of the deceased to build goodwill.
The statement also criticized the Chinese government’s decision to increase patrols around the island following the incident, saying it caused a chilling effect on relations between the two sides.
On the boarding of a Taiwanese tourist boat by the Chinese coast guard on Tuesday, the group said that the action damaged mutual trust and communication between Kinmen and the neighboring Chinese city of Xiamen. The people and fishers should not be sacrificed for military interests, the group said.
The group of two alliances are vocal proponents of an integrated economic and living zone for the Kinmen Islands and the neighboring city of Xiamen, which is only three kilometers away. They have previously called for the Kinmen Islands to be permanently demilitarized, and to be turned into “peace zones” that would serve as a base for cross-strait interaction.
In the Tuesday statement, Chen and Hung said this mission had not changed. Since the incident causing the deaths of the Chinese nationals was an accident, it should not affect the Kinmen-Xiamen relationship, they said.
The two-group alliance is made up of independent, Kuomintang, and Taiwan People’s Party councilors, and includes Kinmen County Magistrate Chen Fu-hai (陳福海).