China expands coast guard patrols off Taiwan’s coast, as Taiwan tracks 'upward trend' of movement

Taiwan is tracking an “upward trend” in Chinese naval movements during the peak military exercise season, including joint drills with Russia, and will be analyzing any new tactics, a senior Taiwanese security official said on Monday.

Democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, closely monitors daily Chinese military activities around the island and says the warning time for any attack is shortening. Taiwan strongly objects to China’s claim on the island and says only its people can decide their future.

Taiwan National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen told reporters in parliament that the July to September period is the peak season for Chinese drills and the government is comparing past missions to see what “new patterns” emerge.

There are currently four Chinese naval formations operating in the Western Pacific, he added.

On Saturday, China said it had launched a coast guard patrol east of Taiwan to replace a coast guard task force whose presence off the island’s coast has angered Taipei and caused alarm in some Western capitals.

The fleet will conduct “law enforcement patrols” in the area, China’s Coast Guard said in a statement, adding it would strengthen such patrols in what it called China’s jurisdictional waters.

In response, Taiwan’s Coast Guard said it had deployed monitoring vessels and would use “all necessary measures to forcefully expel Chinese vessels harassing our waters.”

This is the second time in roughly a month that China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has sent Coast Guard ships into the waters off Taiwan’s east coast. It risks escalating a diplomatic dispute that has drawn in the US, France, Germany and Britain.

China said the first operation in June was in response to an announcement by Japan and the Philippines that they would begin formal talks on their maritime boundaries, which Beijing viewed as involving Chinese waters off Taiwan.

Taiwan said on Wednesday that Taiwanese ships off the east coast should ignore any boarding and inspection demands by China’s Coast Guard, and if necessary Taiwanese Coast Guard vessels would intervene to stop it from happening.

China recognizes no claims of sovereignty by Taiwan and considers the island and the waters around it to be its own territory. Taiwan says China has no right to claim any sovereignty or jurisdiction over the island or its waters.