image credit: Chinese and Taiwanese national flags are displayed alongside military airplanes

Taiwan has requested that China release the vessel and the two Taiwanese and three Indonesian men imprisoned at Weitou, a southeast port.

“The fishing vessel violated the fishing moratorium regulations and trawled illegally in the prohibited area,” China Coast Guard spokeswoman Liu Dejun said.
He also accused it of misusing fishing gear and “damaging marine fishery resources”. These statements have not been addressed by Taiwan.
The 110-mile strait between China and Taiwan has seen several such clashes.
Japan and the US, which sail these seas, do not recognize China’s claim to Taiwan and the strait as their exclusive economic zone. Recently, the Chinese military has increased pressure on Taiwan.
Taipei data reveals 17 Taiwan-registered boats seized and held by Chinese authorities since 2003 for fishing during the summer prohibition. Taiwan has seized five Chinese vessels this year.
Taiwanese officials said the skipper informed them at 20:04 local time (12:04 GMT) on Tuesday that two Chinese coast guard boats had boarded and seized the fishing boat.
Three Taiwanese coast guard ships rescued the boat after a short but violent confrontation. However, they did not follow them since four more Chinese coast guard ships were coming and they did not want to aggravate tensions.
China’s coast guard said the Taiwanese used loudspeakers to demand the fishing boat’s release and the Chinese did the same, begging the other side not to intervene.
“There were 40–50 fishing boats at sea. Why he targeted my boat is unknown “Fishing vessel owner informed local media. This never occurred before—they used to chase you away if you came too near.”

China’s coast guard enforces Beijing’s forceful claims, although Taiwan and Beijing were formerly more flexible on fishing vessels near the Chinese coast.
Recently, Taiwan has tightened its own waterways in reaction to a large surge in poaching by Fujian fisherman.
Two Chinese fisherman died in February when their boat capsized attempting to evade a Taiwanese coast guard craft. Since then, China’s coast guard has patrolled Taiwan’s outer islands more assertively.

Chinese coast security ships for the first time drove Japanese fishing boats away from the islands last month. A short standoff between Chinese and Japanese coast guard ships ensued.
This increasingly forceful Chinese behavior comes weeks after Beijing approved new maritime laws that allow its coast guard to board, search, and detain boats in any seas it claims.
Foreign nationals who break “exit and entry rules” might be imprisoned without charge for 60 days under the new legislation.
Some believed the new rules were meant to dissuade Filipino fishermen from visiting disputed South China Sea reefs.
However, marine researchers have noted that China has broad, poorly defined claims over thousands of square kilometers of water that its neighbors from South Korea to Indonesia contest.