Taipei, March 5 (CNA) Vice President Annette Lu warned Wednesday against what she claims is "a Beijing plot" to include the Taiwan Strait in its territorial waters, saying that such a move would pose a serious threat to Taiwan's national security and territorial integrity.
Lu made the remarks at a seminar sponsored by the Presidential Office in which scores of security, foreign policy and ocean experts, including Vice Foreign Affairs Minister Tou Chou-seng and Vice National Defense Minister Lin Chung-ping, exchanged views and opinions on how to safeguard Taiwan's maritime sovereignty.
According to Lu, Beijing has since last year been repeatedly trying to make its intent known on every occasion that it plans to include the Taiwan Strait under its jurisdiction. "Should the Taiwan Strait fall under mainland China's jurisdiction, Taiwan's national security and territorial sovereignty will be severely infringed upon," she said.
For instance, went on, Beijing protested in May last year to a small Australian fleet, saying that its passage through the Taiwan Strait from South Korea en route to its home port following a military exercise there, had intruded into its territorial waters.
Citing a newspaper report issued in October last year, Lu said a vessel belonging to Beijing's Beihai Fleet had detoured through waters off eastern Taiwan to participate in a military drill in the South China Sea area, while a mainland Chinese research vessel was also discovered last November sailing off eastern Taiwan's Taitung County, although neither of these areas are in the Taiwan Strait.
Mainland Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen also commented publicly in November last year that direct cross-Taiwan Strait sea and air links cannot be designated as "country-to-country" routes or "quasi-international" routes, Lu said, quoting Qian as saying that "direct transport between Taiwan and the mainland must be run by domestic carriers or ships that have registered with the respective governments on the two sides." "Such an inexplicit intent to put the Taiwan Strait under Beijing's jurisdiction will have a tremendous negative impact on Taiwan's national security and territorial sovereignty, " she claimed.