Ocean Affairs Council (OAC) Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) last night posted the exact locations of eight Chinese vessels detected in the 24 hours ending at 6am yesterday in waters around Taiwan, including near the median line of the Taiwan Strait, providing their type and hull numbers.
The Ministry of National Defense publishes activities detected by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in the waters and airspace around Taiwan at 9am each morning, although it does not disclose the location of naval vessels or official ships.
The Political Warfare Bureau issues daily updates of the type and number of aircraft detected, the exact times they crossed the median line of the Strait and their location on a map.
Photo from Kuan Bi-ling's Facebook
However, it does not show the location of any sea vessels, providing only the number of vessels and whether they were official ships or navy vessels.
Kuan's maps posted on social media included the six Chinese naval ships and two coast guard vessels operating around Taiwan that were mentioned in yesterday’s official ministry update.
She disclosed that a Chinese frigate (FFG556) was detected in the waters north of Taiwan, with another (FFG534) in the Taiwan Strait west of Taoyuan and Hsinchu, one (FFG517) off the coast of Hualien County in the east and one more (FFG618) to the southwest of Taiwan.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
An electronic surveillance ship (AGI7191) was detected near Hualien, while a destroyer (DDG123) sailed between Hualien and Taitung counties and two coast guard vessels (2504 and 2503) were located off Lienchiang County and near the Taiwan median line west of Penghu County respectively.
She wrote in the post that China has conducted at least seven large-scale military exercises around Taiwan since 2022.
Since then, Chinese naval, coast guard and other official vessels have formed an “around-the-clock encirclement posture,” she said.
“Gray zone” harassment around Taiwan proper, Kinmen County and the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) has now become the “status quo,” she added.
Kuan made the post ahead of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) departure today for China at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
“Even today, on the eve of Cheng’s departure, [China] is still surrounding us like this. The group is departing tomorrow and visiting for a few days, yet they’re unlikely to back down,” she wrote. “When the Chinese delegation receives them, will they be looking at tamed rabbits in a cage?!”
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