Mon, Aug 17, 2026 page8

• Michael Mazza on Taiwan: The US Coast Guard to the rescue

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  For the last 15 years, China has relied on gray zone operations to advance its territorial ambitions across Asia. And for 15 years, the US has struggled to respond. But the open door on which China has been pushing may finally be closing.

  Gray zone operations involve the assertive use of a variety of tools in ways that create conditions that can be described as neither peace nor war. Military forces might act provocatively — even dangerously — while carefully avoiding violence, whereas law enforcement employs nonlethal violence as a first resort. Such an approach creates difficult calculations for its targets. If Chinese coast guard vessels, for example, far outclass their Philippine counterparts, should the Philippines respond with warships? Can Taiwan stop Chinese fighter jets from crossing the Taiwan Strait median line without shooting them down? Such steps could be construed as escalations, invite Chinese escalation in turn, and put allies and partners like the US in a difficult position: whether to engage in military confrontation with China or let a friend blow in the wind.

  Beijing has used this approach to great effect. Since 2013, the People’s Republic of China has literally built a string of islands across the South China Sea, used “fishing boats” to enforce sovereignty claims, continually pushed boundaries in deploying military forces near Taiwan, and engaged in “law enforcement” activities in far distant waters. It can now project power far from its southern shores and claim effective control of numerous contested reefs and islets, and it has normalized the daily military coercion of Taiwan.

  

  The US has had no real answer for this slow-motion onslaught. It has used freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs), in an attempt to uphold broadly held views of international maritime law. It has also maintained and further invested in its forward presence in the Western Pacific, which plays an important role in deterring outright aggression. But the fact is that the American approach has done little to change facts on the ground: operating in the interstitial space between peace and war, China continues its creeping advance.

  The US’ approach may now be changing. In an incident near Second Thomas Shoal last month, a Philippine sailor was injured after a Chinese coastguardsman struck him with a wooden baton. Help, it turned out, was not far off. “In fact, there was a US Coast Guard vessel in the region at the time this happened,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed a few days later, “and it actually helped stand between the two sides and allowed the injured individual to be rescued and brought back for medical treatment.”

  The following week, the American Institute in Taiwan published a photo of US and Taiwan Coast Guard vessels sailing side by side. According to AIT, the two agencies are closely coordinating on multiple joint maritime objectives.

  In mid-July, the US Coast Guard announced that its Expeditionary Cutter Squadron, historically known as Patrol Forces Southwest Asia, an expeditionary cutter squadron of six fast response cutters, was in the process of relocating from Bahrain to Guam and the Pacific Islands. This marks a significant boost to Coast Guard capabilities in the Western Pacific. “Coast Guard forces have always adapted to meet urgent national needs,” said the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Kevin Lunday. “Our expeditionary cutter forces provide Combatant Commands with uniquely capable maritime assets, leveraging the Coast Guard’s military and law enforcement authorities to advance US national security objectives in the Western Pacific and Western Hemisphere.”

  This new deployment gives Admiral Samuel Paparo, Commander of Pacific Command, new tools he can use in creative ways to complicate life for China. When an American cutter interposed itself between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, it acted proactively to put the onus for further escalation on the Chinese baton-wielders. And when Taiwanese and American cutters linked up in unspecified waters, though presumably near Taiwan, it sent a powerful signal: Taiwan’s exercise of maritime legal authority is legitimate. The operation also conveyed a message narrowly targeted at China: next time your Coast Guard shows up in the Western Pacific for a “special maritime traffic law enforcement operation,” the US Coast Guard may be there, too.

  Put simply, these activities constrain China’s freedom of action and limit the effectiveness of its gray zone operations. Where there is contestation, advances are harder to secure. If effectively integrated with other tools — including military forces, legal argumentation, diplomacy, and public messaging — American cutters could finally turn the tide on China’s insidious gains in Asia.

  Michael Mazza is senior director for research at the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security (formerly the Project 2049 Institute) and a senior non-resident fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute.
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