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• China deploys record number of ships near Taiwan

  • AFP, TAIPEI
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  China deployed a record number of coast guard, scientific research and other ships near Taiwan’s waters last month, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said, as Beijing dials up pressure on Taipei.

  The coast guard warned of an increasingly severe situation, as analysts say the increased activity is part of China’s bid to map the region for submarine warfare.

  The number of Chinese ships detected around Taiwan proper soared to a record 244 last month — an average of nearly eight every day, official data showed.

  

  A Coast Guard Administration vessel, right, sails near a China Coast Guard ship in waters south of Kinmen in a photograph released on July 8.

  Photo: Coast Guard Administration via AFP

  That compares with 55 ships detected in June and 30 in May, and 58 in July last year.

  In the first 21 days of this month, 152 vessels were detected.

  About 60 percent were coast guard ships, with research vessels and other government boats making up the rest.

  The figures do not include Chinese warships, which China’s military deploys around Taiwan on a near-daily basis.

  China has long dispatched coast guard and research ships around the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in the hotly contested South China Sea.

  China uses the ships to assert authority over the waters, government officials and analysts say, describing them as “gray zone” tactics: actions that fall short of an act of war.

  The number of Chinese ships detected around Taiwan and several of its outlying islands since May is 1,247, CGA figures showed.

  “When we say the situation is becoming increasingly severe, we mean that the number of their government vessels in the waters surrounding Taiwan has increased, and there was a marked increase in July,” a senior CGA official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

  The Chinese Communist Party “has never ruled Taiwan for even a single day” and “without sovereignty over land, it has no right to claim economic zones at sea,” the official said.

  While Taiwan faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion, China’s increasing maritime presence has also fueled concerns about a potential quarantine or blockade to prevent ships carrying energy or other critical supplies from entering or leaving its ports.

  China operates more than “120 oceanographic research vessels,” the CGA said previously.

  The CGA is tracking about 41 ships that operate in Taiwan’s waters.

  They include the Tong Ji (同濟號), which circled Taiwan in May, tracking the edge of Taiwan proper’s restricted waters and refusing the CGA’s orders to leave.

  Its activities likely involved “oceanographic sampling and seabed survey operations,” which could contribute to China’s “antisubmarine warfare databases,” the CGA said.

  That was followed in June by China’s first law enforcement patrol in waters east of Taiwan.

  Earlier this month, China also announced “traffic control measures” for the Taiwan Strait as Typhoon Dolphin swept toward the region.

  Ryan Martinson, an expert on China’s maritime strategy at the US Naval War College, said Chinese research ships are owned and operated by civilian research institutes, but the data collected are shared with the military.

  “That kind of data/knowledge is highly useful for Chinese naval forces, which will operate in these waters in the event of a conflict,” Martinson said in an e-mail, noting that he was speaking in a personal capacity. “It is especially important for anti-submarine warfare and submarine warfare.”

  In the past couple of months, Martinson said he had observed a “very large increase” in the number of Chinese research vessels operating around Taiwan, especially to the east of Taiwan proper.

  “This is not a new ‘play’ in its ‘playbook.’ Rather, the novel aspect is that the scale of these operations around Taiwan is unprecedented,” he said.

  Chinese research vessels have been seen “operating in conjunction” with China Coast Guard ships around Taiwan, the CGA official said.

  This month, China’s Xiang Yang Hong 03 (向陽紅33) research vessel was observed operating within Taiwan and Japan’s exclusive economic zones, moving over deep sea trenches and telecoms cables, said Jason Wang (王柏仁), chief operating officer of ingeniSPACE, which analyzes satellite imagery and ship signals data.

  The research vessel was escorted by a China Coast Guard vessel and a fishing boat that is part of China’s maritime militia, Wang said.

  “This is the first time we have seen maritime militia escort a research vessel in Taiwan’s waters,” he said.

  China’s objective was to gather “fresh hydrographic data of the Ryukyu Trench and East Taiwan Trench to conduct anti-submarine warfare” and “deny US and other allied vessels from doing the same,” Wang said.

  “All of these developments are connected, I believe,” Martinson said. “They represent a clear escalation in Beijing’s efforts to exercise jurisdiction over the waters surrounding Taiwan, putting pressure on the country’s leadership and undermining its sovereignty and sovereign rights.”
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