China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday.
“In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X.
In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a Chinese research vessel that intruded in Taiwan’s restricted waters.
Photo: Screen grab from National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu’s X account
Wu also attached a video with English subtitles to the post, showing Taiwan’s efforts to counter China’s intrusions into the nation’s exclusive economic zone.
Beijing has made becoming a maritime power a core strategy, the video said.
China has more than 120 oceanographic research vessels of various types, which have expanded their operations across the Indo-Pacific region, it said.
Over the past three years, Chinese vessels’ area of activity has expanded from the first island chain to the third island chain, even reaching Hawaii, the video said, adding that China’s navigation range has expanded to the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, Australia and the Arctic Ocean.
When the Chinese oceanographic research vessel Tong Ji (同濟號) entered Taiwan’s contiguous zone — its 24 nautical mile (44.4km) zone of restricted waters — earlier this month, the coast guard immediately dispatched vessels to monitor it, the video said.
It showed footage of the coast guard broadcasting warnings to the Chinese ship, telling it that it was in restricted waters, and to retrieve its sampling equipment and “leave immediately.”
“For those entering Taiwan’s waters, CGA vessels maintain continuous monitoring and assertively expel them,” the video said.
It also called upon like-minded countries to jointly uphold the rules-based international order and deter illegal Chinese surveying to “ensure peace, stability and prosperous development in the Indo-Pacific region.”
The coast guard said it has twice this month detected the Tong Ji in waters around Taiwan.
The vessel was observed lowering into the water ropes suspected to be holding scientific instruments for “illegal” survey operations, it added.
After the Tong Ji ignored its warnings, the coast guard approached it, and rocked the vessel and used searchlights to interfere with its operations, forcing the Chinese ship to retrieve its equipment and sail out of Taiwanese waters, the coast guard said.
Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) on Friday said that by using non-military research vessels to intrude into Taiwan’s waters, China is trying to blur the boundaries of restricted waters around Taiwan proper and its outlying islands, as well as test the coast guard’s law enforcement capabilities and deplete its resources.
The incursions have significant strategical meaning, as data collected could help the Chinese People’s Liberation Army gather hydrological data, acoustic signatures and anti-submarine data on the Taiwan Strait, Kuan said.
The Tong Ji during its mission near Taiwan from Friday last week to Wednesday deployed research equipment including a conductivity-temperature-depth system, a turbulence profiler and a gravity corer, likely to conduct seawater sampling and seabed surveys, the coast guard said, adding that such data could be used for strategic military purposes.
Taiwan’s maritime sovereignty would not be provoked, the coast guard said, warning China against actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only breed resentment among the people on both sides of the Strait.
Additional reporting by AFP and Chiu Chun-fu
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