Asia-Pacific
Taiwan: “China has no jurisdiction” in our waters, the coast guard says, rejecting Chinese “patrols” off the east coast
Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration said China has no jurisdiction in the waters around Taiwan, responding to the Chinese coast guard’s announcement of “routine law-enforcement patrols” east of the island. Taipei sent its own vessels to shadow the Chinese ships.
China has no jurisdiction in the waters around Taiwan, Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration (CGA) made clear, responding to the Chinese coast guard’s announcement of “routine law-enforcement patrols” east of the island. Taipei sent its own vessels, which shadowed the Chinese ships throughout their activity.
The standoff began on Saturday, October 31, when the China Coast Guard announced that a formation led by the ship Hushi carried out such patrols east of Taiwan. Beijing added that it has stepped up control of the surrounding waters.
Taipei’s answer
The CGA reacted with a statement relayed by the CNA agency, as reported by Focus Taiwan. According to the Taiwanese agency, China’s coast guard uses law enforcement as a pretext to harass Taiwan and is trying to foster the false impression that Beijing exercises jurisdiction in the waters around the island. To track the movements of the Chinese vessels Hushi (CCG 1308) and Meishan (CCG 2303), the CGA dispatched ships, among them the Ji An.
The statement invokes the principles of international law that tie maritime jurisdiction to sovereignty over land. On that basis, the CGA maintains that Taiwan has exclusive sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the Exclusive Economic Zone east of the island. The CGA also accuses Beijing of spreading false narratives, calling Taiwan the “Chinese island of Taiwan” and its own activities “law-enforcement patrols”, while attempting to harass ships through radio communications.
How Beijing operates at sea
At a security forum in Taipei the same Saturday, Pai Pang-ting, an expert at the Ocean Affairs Council, described Beijing’s method. The People’s Liberation Army provides the visible military deterrence, while coast guard, research and fishing vessels contest in practice Taiwan’s maritime policing and administrative jurisdiction. Pai warned that Beijing wants to present the repeated violations as administrative routine, gradually limiting Taipei’s ability to exercise jurisdiction in its own waters.
Similar pressure was recorded in October. On October 18 Taiwan’s coast guard announced that it had driven away 16 Chinese vessels, coast guard, research and fishing ships operating at several points around the island and the Pratas, while in another case Taipei tracked more than 50 Chinese ships, together with the Liaoning carrier group.
