China sends 16 coast guard, research and fishing vessels to press on four areas around Taiwan

Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration said on Sunday, Oct. 18, that China had sent 16 vessels, made up of 12 coast guard and research ships and four fishing boats, into waters off Hualien, Pingtung and Kaohsiung and around the Pratas Islands in what it described as a coordinated grey-zone incursion launched at several points at once. The agency said it tracked the ships throughout, pushed its own vessels forward and used close shadowing and radio warnings to drive out those that crossed into restricted waters.

The sharpest encounter came around Pratas, also known as Dongsha, where China Coast Guard ships 3301 and 3303 sailed around the atoll in opposite directions, a manoeuvre the Taiwanese agency called clearly provocative. The patrol vessels Qijin and Taichung stayed alongside them at close range while broadcasting warnings. China Times reported that the standoff ran from the early hours of Sunday until about noon, when the coast guard said both Chinese ships had been pushed outside the Pratas restricted waters and were continuing to head away.

According to the Liberty Times, the crew of the Taichung told ship 3303 over the radio that the Republic of China, Taiwan, is a sovereign and independent country that is not subordinate to the People's Republic of China. The broadcast added that the Chinese ship had entered Taiwanese waters without permission in violation of international rules, was disrupting order and safety at sea, and should turn around and leave immediately.

Off the east coast, the Chinese research ship Tansuo 3 tried to sail into restricted waters east of Hualien and was met by a patrol boat from the coast guard's Taitung unit, which ordered it away by radio. Southwest of Eluanbi, at the southern tip of Pingtung County, the research ship Bei Diao 996 entered restricted waters before dawn. A patrol boat from the Hengchun unit broadcast 12 consecutive warnings before the Chinese vessel changed course and sailed out of the zone.

The fourth incident took place southwest of Kaohsiung harbour, where the coast guard said the Taiwanese fishing boat Wan Fa Cheng 11 was disrupted while working by the Chinese research ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 and Chinese steel-hulled fishing boats. The agency sent the patrol vessel Pingtung to the scene to protect the fishermen. The reports did not say whether the Taiwanese boat suffered any damage or whether its crew was hurt.

In its statement, the coast guard said the number of Chinese ships involved had risen unusually and that the formation of coast guard, research and fishing vessels operating at the same time across the east, the south, the southwest and around Pratas amounted to hybrid pressure on Taiwan's surrounding waters. It accused Beijing of using what it called sham law enforcement to expand its control, of trying to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait on its own and of creating a false appearance of jurisdiction. It issued what it called its strongest condemnation and said such moves would only turn Taiwanese public opinion against China.

The agency said it would keep up round-the-clock, high-intensity surveillance and patrol deployments in response to what it described as continued Chinese pressure at sea, with the aim of defending national sovereignty and protecting the lives and property of Taiwan's people.

By grouping the four sets of incidents in a single statement, the coast guard presented them as one coordinated operation rather than a string of separate encounters. The episode spread Chinese government ships from Taiwan's Pacific coast to the South China Sea on the same day, testing the ability of Taiwanese patrol units to enforce restricted zones at several distant points at once. Chinese authorities were not cited in any of the reports, and the account of the incidents rests on the Taiwanese coast guard's statement.