Taiwan says its coast guard drove away Chinese vessels 618 times this year as grey-zone pressure rises

Taiwan's Ocean Affairs Council said on Thursday, 5 November, that the Coast Guard Administration has checked or driven away Chinese vessels 618 times so far this year, and that Chinese coast guard ships have entered restricted waters around Dongsha 13 times and Kinmen 39 times. Council minister Guan Bi-ling delivered the figures to the Cabinet in a Coast Guard Day progress report ahead of the service's annual ceremony.

Guan told the Cabinet that Chinese coast guard ships have been making routine, organised entries into Taiwan's restricted and prohibited waters, and that some Chinese research ships have, in her account, used scientific work as cover for surveying the seas and preparing a battlefield. She said coast guard crews follow a four-part rule of no provocation, no conflict, no avoidance and no weakness when they monitor, warn and force those ships away, and that the service publishes tracks and images to counter false narratives.

Besides the 618 checks and expulsions, the council said Taiwan had detained 15 Chinese vessels, imposed fines of NT$10.38 million and confiscated 12 boats. Guan framed the work with the slogan that where the coast guard is present, sovereignty is present.

Ceremony and modernisation plans

In the afternoon the coast guard held its annual Coast Guard Day awards ceremony in Kaohsiung, marking the approach of the formal day on 8 November. Guan and Cabinet secretary-general Chang Tun-han presented awards to 20 model personnel and seven model units, including staff who organised maritime security drills and coast guard participation in the Han Kuang live exercise, according to the Central News Agency.

Guan told the ceremony that coast guard units remain on the front line against grey-zone pressure, including Chinese coast guard flotillas and research ships that she said are used for battlefield preparation. She thanked families of coast guard personnel for lending their relatives to the state, CNA reported.

The Cabinet report also set out funding for a larger coast guard fleet and sensors. The government is backing a Sea-Air Integration, Elite Coast Guard programme valued at NT$678.6 billion and a resilience special budget of NT$284.6 billion to strengthen ships, shore and sea surveillance and drones. Guan said the Cabinet had approved pay adjustments covering 7,728 coast guard personnel and a six-year NT$12.3 billion plan to build 61 new buildings and bases.

Law enforcement and rescue work

The same report listed non-military tasks that share the same fleet. The coast guard said it had seized 12,901.6 kilograms of drugs and 60 firearms this year, including a June inland cannabis haul of 766.09 kilograms that it called the largest in about a decade. In July it said it had broken up an illegal export case involving advanced semiconductors and artificial-intelligence servers and frozen more than NT$53 million in proceeds, while overseas drug seizures reached 5,746 kilograms with partners in 15 countries.

On search and rescue, the service reported saving 271 people and assisting 136 others at sea this year, and said it now inspects every ship entering port to limit the risk of animal disease arriving by sea.

Coast Guard Day falls on 8 November. The service said it would publish its 2025 yearbook on its website, using imagery from the Sea-Air Integration programme as the cover theme, according to CNA.