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A New Weapon? Chinese Ships Dredge in Waters Claimed by Taiwan

Ralph Jennings

   JINCHENG TOWNSHIP, KINMEN COUNTY, TAIWAN - Chinese civil aviation
   authorities are working on a new civilian airport on Dadeng Island,
   less than 10 kilometers from the Taiwanese-held island of Kinmen, and
   Chinese ships can be spotted in sea tracts uncomfortably close to
   Taiwan's turf, dredging for gravel.

   That's what Shih Chao-min, chairman of Kinmen county's ruling
   Nationalist Party, has observed for the past few years.

   Taiwan's central government has noticed too. It says the Chinese ships
   are illegally looking for gravel in waters close to Taiwanese land. A
   lot turn up near Kinmen and Matsu, another outlying archipelago,
   because of their proximity to China.

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