TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan needs to increase transparency to combat Chinese gray-zone warfare, according to geospatial intelligence company Ingenispace, which urged “aggressively monitoring and sharing information with the public and Taiwan’s friends and allies” so the world understands how events in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait affect their future.
Transparency and sharing
A Jamestown Foundation report on Sept. 3 said Beijing has placed 12 permanent and semi-permanent oil rigs along with three storage vessels and two semi-submersible oil platforms near the Dongsha Islands. Since then, China has removed only one rig, Nanhaierhao, from Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and added several more in its place, according to Ingenispace.
“Taiwan should aggressively collect and share the satellite data to create a coalition of the willing,” Ingenispace said, calling it an opportunity for Taiwan to demonstrate leadership and deepen ties with countries also affected by China’s encroachment.
Today’s commercial satellite constellations provide military-relevant capabilities, the company said. They can revisit strategic locations multiple times per day where drones cannot, monitor wide areas, and conduct imaging at night and in poor weather.
Moreover, the data are not classified, Ingenispace said. This benefits Taiwan’s think tanks, and the foreign ministry could “easily leverage this to support diplomacy and transparency.”
Countries such as Vietnam, Japan, and the Philippines have protested encroaching Chinese oil rigs and other structures near their EEZs and have at times impeded Beijing’s salami tactics, the firm said. China has used permanent structures in the waters of Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea, effectively expanding its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and offensive perimeter across the Indo-Pacific.
Strategic risks
The rigs inside Taiwan’s EEZ pose a threat to regional and global trade, Ingenispace said. “Nearly 50% of trade goes through the major sea lanes Taiwan’s EEZ protects.” The strategic locations of both the Dongsha Islands and Taiping Island allow Taiwan to track Chinese military activities and movements by Russian and Iranian assets, the company added.
By using dual-use oil rigs in the EEZ, China increases the number of locations that Taiwan’s allies would need to strike to prevent a PRC blockade of global trade, the company said. If China were to seize the Dongsha Islands, it would expand the number of anti-access/area denial sites that cover the Taiwan Strait and the Bashi Channel, significantly boosting air and underwater monitoring positions in the South China Sea.
Recommendations
Ingenispace urged Taiwan to bolster deterrence by strengthening intelligence collection. “Diverse intelligence collection is deterrence without provocation. It informs spending and shapes a military force that is focused,” the firm said.
The company advised investing across multiple ISR platforms. Synthetic aperture radar satellites can provide all-weather, all-night monitoring, while long-endurance surface sea drones can simultaneously watch submarine cables and the EEZ. Robot dogs could also support infantry, rescue operations, and border security.
Taiwan must be able to image multiple times a day across a wide area, Ingenispace said. However, “no single satellite data provider can provide sufficient capacity,” so Taiwan should diversify imaging and intelligence methods.
The government should avoid competing with private businesses and instead support them, the firm added. Such an ecosystem would help Taiwan build a new economic pillar that supports academia and new-space applications while maintaining transparency about China’s gray-zone activities.
