Key facts
- China claims indisputable sovereignty over the Pratas Islands and surrounding waters.
- Taiwan's ruling party's "separatist stance" is the root cause of peril of war, China stated.
- Taiwan's top China-policy maker said Beijing is attempting to "domesticate" the Taiwan issue.
- Beijing's Taiwan policy may shift toward a more aggressive, provocative strategy of 'exercising jurisdiction before achieving unification'.
China's government said on Wednesday that its coast guard was "safeguarding order" around a tiny and strategically located Taiwan-controlled atoll at the top end of the South China Sea, where Taipei fears Beijing is trying to enforce jurisdiction. China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, said last week that Taiwan must "bear the consequences" of its coast guard using a water cannon against a Chinese fishing boat near the Pratas Islands. Taiwan has reported two incidents since Sunday of Chinese coast guard vessels approaching the Pratas, accusing Beijing of provocative behaviour. Speaking at a regular news briefing, a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office said Beijing has "indisputable sovereignty" over the South China Sea islands, including the Pratas and their adjacent waters. The Chinese ships are "effectively protecting the lawful and legitimate rights and interests of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and the safety of lives and property," spokesperson Zhang Han told reporters. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's territorial claims, saying only the Taiwanese people can decide their future. The Pratas have no permanent civilian population and lie roughly between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong. Security experts see them as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than 400 km (250 miles) — from Taiwan. Addressing a forum in Taipei late Tuesday, Taiwan's top China-policy maker said Beijing is attempting to "domesticate" the Taiwan issue to "create an illusion of having de facto jurisdiction over Taiwan's surrounding waters and offshore islands." Chiu Chui-cheng, head of the Mainland Affairs Council, said, "We assess that Beijing's Taiwan policy will shift toward a more aggressive, provocative strategy of 'exercising jurisdiction before achieving unification'."