Four China Coast Guard ships enter Kinmen restricted waters on eve of Taiwan's National Day

Four China Coast Guard ships sailed into the restricted waters around Taiwan's Kinmen islands on Friday morning, a day before Taiwan's National Day celebrations, and left about two hours later after Taiwanese patrol boats shadowed them out, Taiwan's coast guard said.

The Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu branch of the Coast Guard Administration said the ships, hull numbers 14608, 14529, 14607 and 14531, entered the restricted zone in two pairs at 9:10 a.m. local time, one pair from east of Liaoluo on Kinmen's south coast and the other from the southwest.

The branch's 12th patrol district pushed patrol boats forward and assigned one boat to each Chinese ship, sailing alongside at close range to stop the formation from moving deeper into the area. Crews broadcast warnings by radio in Mandarin and English, and all four ships had left the restricted waters by 11:13 a.m., the coast guard said.

The coast guard said the sea off Kinmen was rough during the encounter, with its patrol boats working through heavy swell to keep watch on the Chinese ships and their intended course. United Daily News put the length of the incursion at about two hours.

The branch described the National Day period as a time when China is prone to grey-zone harassment and cognitive warfare. It said its crews would keep up round-the-clock, high-intensity surveillance and immediate-response deployments through the holiday, whatever the weather, to protect Taiwan's sovereignty and maritime security.

A repeat pattern off Kinmen

The coast guard's press release described Friday's passage as China's coast guard harassing Kinmen again. In a similar incident in November 2025, four China Coast Guard ships, 14603, 14515, 14609 and 14529, switched off their automatic identification system transponders at about 7 a.m. and entered Kinmen's restricted waters from south of Lieyu, also known as Little Kinmen, before sailing east in column, Newtalk reported at the time.

On that occasion Taiwan sent four patrol boats to sail alongside the Chinese ships and broadcast demands that they turn away, and the formation left the restricted waters at about 11 a.m., according to the coast guard account carried by Newtalk.

Holiday security posture

The Kinmen response came a day after the coast guard's northern branch launched an expanded holiday sweep along Taiwan's northern coast. On Thursday it mobilised 235 personnel, 70 vehicles, five boats and three dogs, alongside police and immigration officers, across six northern cities and counties to guard against smuggling, illegal crossings and wanted fugitives trying to flee by sea over the long weekend.

That operation drew on three patrol districts, a drone unit, mobile radar vehicles and mobile thermal-imaging systems to watch harbours, coastline and nearby waters, the coast guard said.

Friday's response followed the same approach of close shadowing and radio warnings that Taiwan's coast guard used in the November 2025 encounter, and the agency said it would keep deploying patrol boats immediately to any further incursions during the holiday.