Taiwan Won’t Say Whether China Is Firing Missiles : Asia: Fishermen and airliners nonetheless stay clear of area where Beijing had vowed it would begin testing on Friday.

Taiwan’s government was silent Friday on the question of whether China had begun missile tests near the island, but fearful fishermen stayed in port and airliners detoured around the test area.

Asked to confirm the testimony of a fisherman who said he heard the sound of a missile being fired near the test area, an unnamed official with Taiwan’s Defense Ministry was quoted by the semiofficial Central News Agency as saying: “It is inconvenient for the Defense Ministry to confirm that China has fired a missile.”

The weeklong missile tests, announced by China on Tuesday, were to occur in the East China Sea about 85 miles north of Taiwan.

China has regarded Taiwan as a rebel-held province since a civil war ended in 1949 and maintains a threat to use force against the island, which lies about 100 miles off China’s southeastern coast.

Panic spread in Taiwan after the tests were announced, driving stock prices down by more than 4% Wednesday and 2.7% Thursday. Friday the market stabilized, rising 0.2%.

But along the northern coast, fear and anger brought the peak fishing season to a halt.

“We are broadcasting warnings to fishing boats eight times a day not to go near that missile testing area,” said Han Wen-lung, secretary general of the fishermen’s association in the northeastern port of Suao.

“No fishing boat dares to go out today,” he said by telephone. “Usually there are 200 or so boats going to that area.”

Flights between Taiwan and South Korea, which would normally fly over the area, began charting detours to avoid potential danger, aviation officials said.

President Lee Teng-hui, who had made it clear Thursday that Taiwan could not accept threats to its sovereignty, did not break the wall of official silence Friday, which seemed designed to calm fears.

Relations between China and the United States and Taiwan have slumped since June, when Beijing protested Lee’s private trip to the United States. Many see the tests as a warning to Taipei to give up trying to gain more international recognition.