Taiwan says it drove away 16 Chinese vessels in coordinated 'maritime harassment'

Taiwan said on Sunday it had confronted and driven away 16 Chinese coastguard, research and fishing vessels that it described as carrying out simultaneous “maritime harassment” operations around the island.

An “unusually large” number of Chinese vessels took part in the coordinated operations around Taiwan’s main island and Pratas (also known as Dongsha), a disputed island to the southwest, the Taiwanese coastguard said in a statement on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera. The vessels, including four fishing boats, operated simultaneously at multiple locations in what Taipei called “hybrid warfare”.

The locations included waters off Taiwan’s eastern, southern and southwestern coastlines, as well as around Pratas, and some of the Chinese vessels entered waters restricted by Taiwan, the Taipei Times reported.

Taiwan’s coastguard said its vessels took “forceful action immediately to effectively neutralise the threats”, and accused Beijing of “attempting to unilaterally alter the status quo” in the Taiwan Strait and create a “false impression of jurisdiction”. “Such actions will only lead to resentment among the people of Taiwan, and the Coast Guard Administration condemns them in the strongest terms,” the statement said, per WION.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to annex the island, a claim Taipei rejects. The operation comes after Taiwan’s coastguard used water cannon against a Chinese recreational fishing vessel near Pratas on 1 October, sparking an angry response from Beijing, and as China has intensified its maritime pressure on Taiwan in recent months, deploying record numbers of vessels around the island.

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