Taiwan has accused China of carrying out a “provocative act” after Chinese Coast Guard vessels conducted patrols in waters east of the island, prompting a response from Taiwanese authorities and renewed concerns over Beijing’s growing maritime activities in the region.
Taiwan’s Defence Minister, Wellington Koo, told parliament on Monday that the patrols represented both a challenge to Taiwan’s sovereignty and an attempt to exert psychological pressure on the island.
“First this is a provocative act, and second it is cognitive warfare,” Koo said.
“They are attempting to first claim the eastern waters as their domain, like casting a large spider’s web over the area,” he added. “This is a serious affront to our national sovereignty.”
The patrols followed an announcement by Japan and the Philippines last month that they would begin formal talks on delimiting their maritime boundaries, a move that Beijing views as involving waters off Taiwan. Delimitation is the legal process of defining a state’s maritime boundaries.
Chinese state media reported late on Saturday that Coast Guard ships had been dispatched to carry out a “special maritime traffic law-enforcement operation” in waters east of Taiwan in response to the planned talks.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard said it deployed vessels to challenge the Chinese ships and warned them away from restricted waters. Authorities said the Chinese vessels had been “expelled” and left Taiwanese waters in the early hours of Monday.
On Monday, Chinese state media released footage showing a Chinese officer warning Taiwan’s Coast Guard, saying: “Be aware of your language – the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are both part of one China.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately comment. Beijing does not recognise Taiwan’s sovereignty and considers the island part of its territory.
Koo said Taiwan’s military would maintain close coordination with the Coast Guard, including intelligence sharing and monitoring of Chinese maritime activity.
The head of Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council, Kuan Bi-ling, said China had been conducting a month-long campaign of “escalating provocations” since early May. She cited operations near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands in the South China Sea and the deployment of a Chinese research vessel near Taiwanese waters.
“The ocean should be an ocean of peace, not an ocean of conflict and threats,” Kuan said.
Taiwan is also tracking the movements of the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, which Koo said is currently operating in waters east of the Philippines.
Chinese warships and military aircraft regularly operate around Taiwan, and Beijing has never ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan’s government rejects China’s sovereignty claims and maintains that only the people of Taiwan can determine the island’s future.Faridah Abdulkadiri
