Chinese coast guard flotilla makes a sixth Kinmen incursion in two weeks despite heavy seas

Four China Coast Guard ships sailed into the restricted waters around Kinmen on Monday afternoon, 9 November, in what Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration said was the sixth time in roughly two weeks that a Chinese coast guard formation had entered the area. The ships stayed for about two hours before leaving, even though a strengthening northeast monsoon had whipped up strong winds and heavy seas around the island.

According to the Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu branch of the coast guard, its 12th Patrol Zone detected the four vessels, carrying hull numbers 14608, 14531, 14604 and 14530, at 2:50 pm local time. The ships split into two pairs. One pair came in from east of Liaoluo and the other from south-west of Zhaishan. Taiwanese patrol boats were sent forward to meet them and broadcast repeated radio warnings in Chinese and English, and the last of the four left the restricted waters at 4:50 pm.

The broadcaster TVBS reported that the Taiwanese crews kept close to the Chinese ships throughout the encounter despite the conditions, pressing them to turn back and blocking the formation from moving deeper into Taiwanese-controlled waters. The two sides manoeuvred around each other for about two hours before the Chinese vessels withdrew, the report said.

The coast guard was unusually sharp in its criticism of the timing. It said that sending a formation into the area in such weather was extremely unprofessional and irrational, that it disregarded the safety of navigation, and that it created serious risks for other ships passing through. The agency again accused Beijing of using law enforcement as a cover for expanding its control, said this damaged regional peace and stability, and pledged to keep surveillance and patrol deployments at a high level around the clock.

The same four hull numbers have appeared in the agency's accounts of the two previous incursions. On 4 November the ships sailed in a single column from south of Lieyu, also known as Little Kinmen, into Kinmen's prohibited waters shortly before 3 pm and left a little after 5 pm, with Taiwanese boats shadowing them one-on-one, the Liberty Times reported. On 6 November, according to the coast guard, the same four ships approached at about 9 am as the monsoon was already building, and all had left by 11:13 am.

Those entries fit the count the coast guard gave on Monday. The Liberty Times reported on 4 November that Chinese coast guard ships had entered Kinmen waters twice on 30 October and once on 2 November before that day's incursion. Adding the entries on 6 and 9 November brings the total to six formations in eleven days, which matches the agency's own tally.

In its 6 November statement, the coast guard had already called on China to stop the harassment and said its crews would follow a principle of neither provoking nor backing down. Monday's release went further, describing the choice to keep sailing in formation through rough seas as irrational and putting more weight on the danger it posed to other shipping in the area.

For Taiwan, the practical effect is that the 12th Patrol Zone has had to send boats out to meet a Chinese formation about every other day since late October, now in weather that is hard on small patrol craft. The coast guard said it would keep monitoring the movements of Chinese ships and would send boats to shadow, warn and expel any vessel that enters the restricted waters.