Taiwan dismisses China complaint about collision of navy ship, trawler

By Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan's defence minister dismissed on Friday China's complaints about a collision between a Taiwan navy ship and a Chinese trawler in the sensitive Taiwan Strait, vowing that Taipei would carry on military exercises undeterred.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office condemned the actions of the Taiwanese landing ship as "wicked" following Thursday's collision off Taiwan's central city of Taichung. Taiwan, however, said it did not take place in "restricted" waters.

"The Taiwan Affairs Office always says things like this," Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo told reporters on the sidelines of parliament. "I can only say that we will carry out the drills we should be carrying out."

Asked if the Chinese fishing boat was spying on the activities of Taiwan's navy, Koo said it was "not really possible" for such a vessel to get any kind of detailed information on military activity.

China said it is also investigating the collision, which happened on the Taiwan side of the Strait's median line which used to unofficially demarcate the two sides' air and maritime border, but which Beijing says it does not recognise.

Taiwan's coast guard is leading an investigation into what happened, Koo said of the incident, in which there were no casualties, declining to speculate on the reason or where to attribute blame.

The Taiwan Strait is the site of daily Chinese and Taiwanese military activities, though both sides normally maintain a respectful distance and there have been no exchanges of fire for decades.

Chieh Chung, a researcher at Taipei-based think tank the Association of Strategic Foresight, said China could use the incident as a further pretext to cross the median line and send its own coast guard vessels to protect its fishermen.

That would mean Beijing trying to further assert its legal claims to jurisdiction over the waterway, Chieh said, adding, "National security units should not take this matter lightly."

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up its military drills around the island in recent years.

Taiwan rejects China's sovereignty claims and routinely denounces what it says are Beijing's efforts to pressure Taipei.

This week, China's Taiwan Affairs Office published a list of alleged "separatists" whose activities had been reported to a special email address, though it did not say if the reports came from people in China or Taiwan.

Taiwan Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang, whose name headed the list, told reporters on Friday she had been busy this week and had not paid much attention to it.

"I think our friends at the Taiwan Affairs Office have been very rude about our officials," she said.

China has previously encouraged people to email tip-offs about what it calls Taiwan "separatist" activity.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Clarence Fernandez)