Coast guard deploys patrols to ‘monitor’ China ships in east

The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said that it had deployed vessels to “monitor” Chinese ships operating in waters off the east coast.

The CGA said it dispatched vessels in response to a China Coast Guard announcement that it had carried out another “routine law-enforcement patrol” in waters off the east coast.

“The CGA firmly rejects China’s cognitive warfare campaign of ‘law enforcement in name, jurisdictional expansion in practice,’” it said on X.

A coast guard ship is pictured in an undated photograph.

Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration

As of 11am yesterday, two China Coast Guard ships were “loitering and drifting” about 105 nautical miles (195km) and 74 nautical miles east of Green Island (綠島) respectively, it said.

It also condemned China’s actions that “sought to harass” Taiwan through maritime activities.

China carried out its first “law enforcement” patrol east of Taiwan in June.

Beijing has since dialed up pressure, deploying a record 244 coast guard, scientific research and other ships around the nation in July, data showed.

That compares with 55 ships detected in June, 30 in May and 58 in July last year.

In the first 21 days of last month, 152 vessels were detected.

About 60 percent were China Coast Guard ships, with research vessels and other government boats making up the rest.

The figures do not include Chinese warships, which China’s military deploys on a near-daily basis.

Meanwhile, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV yesterday said that China’s Ministry of Natural Resources conducted a survey of waters east of Taiwan last month that it said would help it create “one map” for territorial planning and resource management.

The CGA on Aug. 21 said it had warned off and shadowed a Chinese research ship sailing in sensitive waters near Taiwan, the third time the vessel had been spotted since May.

The survey, conducted from Aug. 10 to 31, aimed to understand the basic geology and structural characteristics of the seabed in “China’s jurisdictional sea areas,” CCTV said, citing the ministry.