A Chinese coast guard ship left waters near Taiwan's strategically located Pratas Islands at the top of the South China Sea on Sunday following a tense standoff and verbal sparring between the
A Chinese coast guard ship left waters near Taiwan's strategically located Pratas Islands at the top of the South China Sea on Sunday following a tense standoff and verbal sparring between the coast guards, Taiwan's Coast Guard said.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a position the government in Taipei rejects.
China has pressured Taiwan by increasing its military presence around the island, and Taipei is on high alert for further Chinese actions after President Xi Jinping discussed Taiwan with U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing this month.
Lying roughly between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance - more than 400 km (250 miles) - from Taiwan island.
Taiwan's Coast Guard said on Saturday it had spotted a Chinese Coast Guard ship heading to the Pratas and immediately sent its own ship which broadcast warnings and the two sides "engaged in an intense verbal confrontation over sovereignty via radio."
The Chinese ship broadcast that it was on a routine mission and that China had sovereignty and jurisdiction over the Pratas, the Taiwan Coast Guard said.
"Please do not destroy peace.
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