Taiwan is not ruling out 'political warfare' by China, coast guard says

19/5/2025 12:11

Taiwan's coast guard said on Monday China could try to disrupt public morale on the island ahead of President Lai Ching-te's one-year anniversary this week, after images surfaced on social media of a person planting a Chinese flag on a Taiwan beach.



China calls Lai, who completes a year in office on Tuesday, a "separatist", and has rebuffed his offers for talks.



Lai rejects China's sovereignty claims over the democratic and entirely separately governed island, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future.



Last week, Taiwan's China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said Beijing could hold more military drills to "stir up trouble" around the anniversary.



On Sunday, images posted on Chinese social media showed a man who claimed to have sailed across the Taiwan Strait on a small boat landing on a remote beach and planting a Chinese flag, before returning to China. The video was later deleted.



On Friday, Taiwan's coast guard said it had arrested two Chinese nationals after they sailed into Taiwan illegally on a rubber boat and landed on a beach on the island's northwest coast.