Photo/Illutration Chess pieces are seen in front of displayed Chinese and Taiwanese flags in this illustration taken April 11, 2023. (REUTERS)

TAIPEI--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.

Asked about the two incidents, Hsieh Ching-chin, deputy head of Taiwan’s coast guard, said China has been taking the opportunity for a while now to carry out drills and use other pressure tactics.

“It cannot be ruled out that on the anniversary of President Lai’s inauguration, the Chinese communists will again use similar tactics and videos to engage in political warfare to disrupt the morale of our people,” he told reporters.

Hsieh said the video of the flag planting was indeed taken on the beach in Taiwan’s Taoyuan, but whether by someone who crossed over from China, or was helped by someone in Taiwan to film it, was still being investigated.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.