By Ben Blanchard and Angie Teo
TAIPEI, April 2 (Reuters) – Taiwan will strengthen its defences of the Pratas as China steps up its activities around the islands which lie at the top end of the South China Sea, the minister in charge of Taiwan’s coastguard said on Thursday.
Lying roughly between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance – more than 400 km (250 miles) – from mainland Taiwan.
The Pratas, an atoll which is also a Taiwanese national park, are only lightly defended by Taiwan, and its coastguard has that responsibility rather than the military. China claims the Pratas, and Taiwan, as its own territory.
Kuan Bi-ling, head of Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, said China was gradually expanding the maritime areas in which it carries out “grey zone harassment” – referring to non-combat operations designed to put pressure on Taiwan such as coastguard patrols.
Since last year, the number of Chinese government boats, which include the coastguard, has increased around the Pratas, whereas previously activity was concentrated around Taiwan itself and the Kinmen islands, which sit close to the Chinese coast, she added.
STRENGTHENING CAPABILITIES
“From a political and strategic perspective, we have found that for them, seizing Dongsha would carry considerable strategic significance,” Kuan said, using the name both Taiwan and China use for the Pratas.
Taiwan has renovated the wharf on the main island and will regularly deploy vessels with greater operational capacity there, she added, in comments to the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club.
“Dongsha is an excellent and highly important site for the development of an island defence system, and we currently have plans to develop this,” Kuan said, without giving details.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In January, Taiwan said a Chinese reconnaissance drone briefly flew over the Pratas, in what Taiwan’s defence ministry called a “provocative and irresponsible” move.
Kuan said China’s pressure campaign “lets down people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait”, given it drains resources from other things such as rescuing mariners in distress.
In time of war, Taiwan coastguard ships would be pressed into action, including its new Anping-class corvettes, which are based on the navy’s Tuo Chiang-class warships and have space to install anti-ship missiles.
Kuan said China was also giving Taiwan an opportunity to learn.
“As a result, we are accelerating our efforts to strengthen our capabilities and to speed up the transition between peacetime and wartime readiness,” she said.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Angie Teo; Editing by Alison Williams)
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