TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taiwan Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has warned of an intensifying situation as Beijing steps up maritime gray zone tactics around the country.
“When we say the situation is becoming increasingly severe, we mean that the number of their government vessels in the waters surrounding Taiwan has increased, and there was a marked increase in July,” a senior CGA official told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Chinese ships have been tracked 1,247 times around Taiwan since May, according to CGA figures.
The CGA detected Chinese government vessels around Taiwan’s main island a record 244 times in July, around eight per day, according to official data shared with AFP. Chinese ships were tracked 58 times last July.
Approximately 60% of the ships are coast guard cutters, while oceanographic research ships and other government ships make up the rest, according to AFP. This data excludes PLA vessels, which sail around Taiwan nearly every day.
The increasing number of ships has raised concerns that China could launch a maritime quarantine or full blockade by cutting off energy shipments and commercial shipping lanes, per AFP.
China has a fleet of more than 120 oceanographic research vessels, the CGA said, adding that it monitors 41 that operate near Taiwan, AFP reported. While civilian scientific organizations run these ships, the data they collect is shared with the Chinese military.
“That kind of data/knowledge is highly useful for Chinese naval forces, which will operate in these waters in the event of a conflict,” Ryan D. Martinson, a China maritime strategy specialist at the US Naval War College, told AFP. “It is especially important for anti-submarine warfare and submarine warfare.”
Martinson said he had noticed a recent rise in Chinese research vessels in waters east of Taiwan. “This is not a new ‘play’ in its ‘playbook.’ Rather, the novel aspect is that the scale of these operations around Taiwan is unprecedented,” he said.
The Chinese research vessel “Xiang Yang Hong 03” was recently observed operating over key undersea communication cables and deep-sea areas in Taiwan’s and Japan’s exclusive economic zones, according to Jason Wang, COO of geospatial firm ingeniSPACE. A Chinese coast guard cutter and a maritime militia fishing vessel accompanied the research vessel.
“This is the first time we have seen maritime militia escort a research vessel in Taiwan’s waters,” Wang said.
Wang explained that the ship aimed to collect “fresh hydrographic data of the Ryukyu Trench and East Taiwan Trench to conduct anti-submarine warfare” and “deny US and other allied vessels from doing the same.”
Martinson emphasized that these coordinated naval, militia, and scientific movements form a unified strategic campaign.
"All of these developments are connected, I believe," he said. "They represent a clear escalation in Beijing's efforts to exercise jurisdiction over the waters surrounding Taiwan, putting pressure on the country's leadership and undermining its sovereignty and sovereign rights."
