On Wednesday final week, the Presidential Workplace confirmed that the phrase “Taiwan” could be added to the hulls of Coast Guard Administration vessels.
This follows President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) request, made throughout a launch ceremony on Dec. 11 final yr for a brand new patrol vessel, the Anping (安平), that they “needs to be extra clearly identifiable to the worldwide group when finishing up legislation enforcement duties.”
Some opposition lawmakers have questioned the transfer, claiming that confusion over Taiwan and China’s respective coast guards is exceptional.
Nonetheless, as a former navy captain, with expertise investigating suspicious vessels, and expelling Chinese language intelligence ships and fishing militia vessels from Taiwanese waters, I can attest that there’s a particular want for the nation’s coast guard vessels to bear the identify “Taiwan.”
First, the markings on the perimeters of coast guard ships range from nation to nation. US Coast Guard vessels characteristic purple, white and blue racing stripes embellished with the coast guard’s insignia; Japan Coast Guard vessels characteristic three blue stripes; South Korean vessels characteristic purple, yellow and blue stripes; and China’s and the Philippines’ coast guard vessels characteristic purple, white and blue stripes. Shut commentary is required to distinguish coast guard vessels from totally different nations.
Taiwanese coast guard vessels characteristic a purple and a blue stripe with a big, white inlay of the letter “T.”
The racing stripes on Chinese language coast guard vessels are comprised of a thick “jap purple” ribbon with one skinny blue stripe on one facet and three on the opposite — symbolizing the Bohai, Yellow, and East and South China seas.
The design of Philippine Coast Guard vessels is comparatively much like that of the US Coast Guard, that includes nearly equivalent purple, white and blue stripes, and the one main distinction is the dearth of an insignia on the Philippine vessels.
When coast guard vessels from three nations converge in the identical space of the South China Sea over disputed territory, they’ll simply be confused.
Lettering can be used to distinguish vessels.
Nonetheless, in distinction to, for instance China, Japan or South Korea, Taiwanese ships point out their nation of origin because the Republic of China (ROC) and have the lettering “ROC Coast Guard” on their facet.
This makes it troublesome for business ships and fishing boats to acknowledge Taiwanese vessels. If the phrase “Taiwan” was written in daring, capital letters above the present lettering, Taiwanese coast guard vessels might be extra simply recognized by different ships whereas they’re imposing maritime legislation, conducting search-and-rescue operations or patrolling Taiwan’s sovereign waters.
Whereas conducting nighttime checks, the coast guard makes use of Channel 16 (156.8 megahertz) to speak with unidentified or suspicious ships.
If Taiwanese vessels determine themselves over the radio because the “Republic of China Coast Guard,” this may result in confusion over why the Chinese language coast guard is patrolling Taiwanese sovereign waters. Subsequently, “Taiwan” should be emphasised within the preliminary radio name to forestall such misunderstanding.
On July 30 final yr, the Chinese language State Oceanic Administration introduced a brand new maritime regulation titled “Technical Regulation 2020.”
Taking impact the next day, the regulation outlined the Taiwan Strait and the waters of as much as 50 nautical miles (93km) off Taiwan’s east coast as “inshore navigation zones,” stipulating that “seagoing vessels passing by China’s inner navigation lanes [would] endure statutory checks.”
On the face of it, the regulation appeared to easily align maritime rules with Beijing’s political stance.
Nonetheless, the passing of China’s Coast Guard Regulation on Feb. 1 implies that its coast guard may now be tasked with administration and safety duties inside the offshore and coastal navigation areas outlined within the regulation.
Moreover, a 5,000-tonne maritime patrol rescue ship, the Haixun 06, was launched earlier than the Lunar New 12 months. The ship is to be operated by the Fujian Province department of the Chinese language Maritime Security Administration, whose director has emphasised that the ship could be used to manage maritime shipping actions and supply emergency rescue providers within the Strait.
That is tantamount to the annexation of the Strait as a Chinese language inland waterway. This isn’t idle armchair strategizing: The menace is actual and the die has being forged by Beijing.
In a 2017 Chinese language-language article titled “The Chinese language purple ant has became a monster: Is Taiwan ready?” I argued that China would use its fishing militia, a militarized coast guard and its navy as three pillars to uphold what Beijing views as its sovereign maritime rights.
Turning a blind eye to unlawful border crossings, the stealing of sand by Chinese language dredging boats and the designation of navigation zones, in addition to the passage of the brand new legislation and the launch of the Haixun 06, are all salami-slicing ways. The subsequent step is perhaps the normalization of crossings of the Strait’s median line by Chinese language Folks’s Liberation Military Navy vessels.
Including “Taiwan” to the facet of coast guard vessels is not only a way to be extra clearly identifiable, it might additionally reveal Taiwan’s dedication to defend its sovereign waters and forestall China’s coast guard from trespassing throughout the median line. It’s a sensible transfer.
Lu Li-shih is a former teacher on the Republic of China Naval Academy and a former captain of the ROCS Hsin Chiang.
Translated by Edward Jones
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