In a rare moment of cooperation, Taiwanese rescue teams joined their Chinese counterparts to rescue a boat that capsized near the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands on Thursday March 14, amid heightened tensions in the Taiwan Strait.

The Taiwanese coast guard said in a statement that a Chinese fishing vessel sank around 1.07 nautical miles west of Taiwan's Dongding Island in the early hours of Thursday local time. Authorities from both sides dispatched rescue teams and recovered two bodies.

The statement added that two people were rescued, while another two were still missing.

Taiwan dispatched coast guard boats to join the rescue after Chinese authorities asked them for help, a senior Taiwanese official told Mediacorp on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

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Rare Joint Rescue Operation

Last month, the Chinese Coast Guard began regular patrols around the Kinmen islands—which Taiwan controls despite it being very near the coast of the Chinese city of Xiamen—after two Chinese nationals died trying to flee Taiwan's coast guard after their boat entered prohibited waters.

Taiwan's top China policy-making body urged China last week not to change the "status quo" around the waters, thereby sending coast guard boats into restricted areas and saying tensions should be "controllable."

Taiwanese military personnel stationed on Kinmen were also involved in the rescue, the coast guard added without further elaboration.

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