Taiwan Expels 16 Chinese Ships Engaged In Maritime Harassment Operations In Multi-Front Standoff

Taiwan’s Coast Guard said that it intercepted and drove away 16 Chinese ships involved in ‘maritime harassment’ activities around Taiwan’s main island and the disputed Pratas Islands, also called the Dongsha Islands.

The authorities in Taiwan said that their coordinated behaviour points to hybrid warfare attempts aimed at changing the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and projecting false jurisdiction over the region.

The Chinese fleet comprised 12 official vessels, including Coast Guard cutters and research vessels, along with 4 steel-hulled fishing boats sailing across four maritime locations spanning Taiwan’s perimeter.

In the southwest of Kaohsiung, a Chinese research vessel and a fishing boat interfered with a Taiwanese fishing boat, Wan Fa Cheng 11. The Taiwanese patrol ship Pingtung responded to protect the local crew.

Simultaneously, off the eastern coast near Hualien, the Chinese scientific research ship Tansuo-3 crossed into restricted waters. It was eventually intercepted by a patrol boat that issued broadcast orders demanding that it leave immediately.

Further south, near Eluanbi, another research ship, the Beidiao 996, entered restricted waters after midnight and changed course only after it received 12 warnings over the radio from a Hengchun unit patrol vessel.

The fourth location of the standoff was the Dongsha Atoll in the disputed South China Sea, where China Coast Guard cutters 3301 and 3303 were present and circling the island.

Taiwanese coast guard ships Qijin and Taichung drove them out of the restricted area by noon. According to the Coast Guard, Taiwan has expelled Chinese vessels from the atoll at least 12 times this year.

Taiwan has condemned these unlawful operations, accusing Beijing of using fake law enforcement tactics to assert control.

These manoeuvres would only build deeper resentment among the people of Taiwan against Chinese administration, a media outlet on the island said.

The incident marks an escalation in maritime pressure around Taiwan, where official data recorded a surge of 244 Chinese coast guard, research, and government ships detected in July alone, up from just 30 in May this year. These non-military incursions occur with almost-daily deployments of Chinese warships around the island.

China began to conduct law enforcement patrols in the waters east of Taiwan in June, which the latter called provocative and expansionist.