China is combining militia vessels with Coast Guard ships to expand “battlefield preparation” around Taiwan and into the western Pacific, Taiwan’s Coast Guard said, warning the operations were also putting pressure on Japan and the Philippines.
China has increased such activity since June in overlapping economic waters involving Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines, the coast guard said, after Tokyo and Manila announced talks on maritime boundary delimitation in their exclusive economic zones. China’s defence ministry, and the Philippines defence and foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Japan’s coast guard declined immediate comment.
“Such complex grey-zone operations not only increase the maritime surveillance and response burden on Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines, but may also create regional security pressure and affect the existing international maritime order,” Taiwan’s Coast Guard said in a statement to Reuters. The Coast Guard said the vessels’ coordinated activity was part of a broader pattern of Chinese “grey-zone” operations using law-enforcement, scientific and civilian cover to expand Beijing’s influence at sea while remaining below the threshold of open conflict.
China has repeatedly said its operations off Taiwan’s east coast are “legitimate and lawful” because they are in Chinese waters, a position Taipei’s government strongly rejects.
The coast guard confirmed details in the Reuters report, identifying the suspected militia fishing boat as Minfudingyu 07902, and said it had come as close as about 2.7 nautical miles outside Taiwan’s restricted waters on August 16.
Responding to a Reuters exclusive this month on the first known sighting of a Chinese militia boat off Taiwan’s Pacific coast in mid-August, the coast guard said it had dispatched a patrol boat to drive away the vessel, which was operating alongside a Chinese coast guard ship and a research vessel.
