President Lai Thanks Coast Guard as China Steps Up Pressure

TaiwanPlus News

President Lai Ching-te thanked the coast guard ahead of a holiday when many will be on duty guarding the seas. But his routine address comes at a very untypical time, with China flexing its muscles around Taiwan, Chinese citizens landing on Taiwan's shores and even news that a former coast guard branch commander was a Chinese spy.

Transcript

00:00President Lai Qingde greets Coast Guard personnel defending Taiwan's North Coast.

00:04The country may be preparing for the annual Dragon Boat Festival this weekend,

00:08but many of the people here will be on duty,

00:10helping any ships in distress and scanning the seas for intruders.

00:15President Lai is thanking these mariners for their dedication to the country

00:18and suggesting ways to make their work easier.

00:30It's a typical presidential visit at a decidedly untypical time.

00:46Because China is stepping up pressure all around Taiwan to push its claims of sovereignty.

00:51For two days in a row, it sent vessels into restricted waters around the outlying Jinmen Islands,

00:56Taiwan's closest outpost to the Chinese coast.

01:00This kind of incursion has become a new normal,

01:02with Jinmen's waters seeing around four Chinese intrusions a month, testing Taiwan's resolve.

01:07And Jinmen is just one small corner of the waters where China is flexing its muscles.

01:12It's spent the past month sending out unusual fleets through the wider region.

01:16Both of China's aircraft carriers have been spotted near Taiwan in recent days,

01:20as Chinese warplanes and ships probe Taiwan's defenses.

01:23On Tuesday alone, there were 31 Chinese warplanes and 10 ships detected near Taiwan.

01:29Some security analysts see this as possible practice for an encirclement and blockade.

01:34This is a signal that China may be preparing actions short of an invasion against Taiwan in the next few years.

01:43This contingency and others can only be addressed and averted if our allies in both regions and the United States were closely together.

01:52And then there were the Chinese citizens who've landed undetected on Taiwan's shores using dinghies,

01:58in one recent case planting a Chinese flag on the beach.

02:01There have been 27 intrusions of this kind in the past two years that officials know about,

02:05and they suspect state back in.

02:07This division is very difficult to use to use the legal and economic and society's conditions.

02:15Its all of them are quite a bit similar.

02:19So I've also said that we don't have to be able to do a system-like approach.

02:25But all of them are the two-land-fifth-fifth-fifth-fifth-fifth-fifth-fifth-fifth-fifth-fifth-fifth-fifth.

02:35Amid all of this, the Coast Guard is especially sensitive.

02:38The discovery that one branch commander spied for China has lie calling on personnel to be more alert.

02:44But with the expectation of more drills and maneuvers, and attempts to infiltrate high places,

02:50what's clear is that even if the upcoming holiday turns out uneventful,

02:53the Coast Guard can expect to stay busy as China tries to assert dominance at sea.

02:58Leon Lian and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.

03:05Monique Mar Sometime

03:08Monique Marquinal

03:13Monique Marquinal

03:14Fr Damn

03:18Monique Marquinal

03:20Monique Marquinal

03:23ikh

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