China’s coast guard began issuing direct commands to foreign commercial vessels while patrolling waters east of Taiwan’s main island earlier this month, according to Taiwanese and Western officials. The five-day operation, which ran from June 6 to June 10, has alarmed officials who see it as a potential rehearsal for a naval quarantine of the self-governing democratic island that China claims as part of its territory.
A spokesperson for the American Institute in Taiwan, the U.S. de facto embassy in Taipei, said Wednesday that “China’s actions are deeply destabilizing” and urged Beijing to “cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure against Taiwan and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan’s democratically elected authorities.” Hours earlier, the representative of the United Kingdom issued a statement saying China’s actions “threaten regional stability and the freedom of navigation and safety of international shipping.”
China’s Ministry of Transport said it conducted 198 vessel inspections during the operation. Chen Binhua, a spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said June 17 that the patrols were “necessary actions taken in response to the serious infringements on China’s territorial sovereignty.” Beijing cited negotiations between Japan and the Philippines over overlapping exclusive economic zones as justification. In Taipei, security officials rejected that rationale, saying the talks between Tokyo and Manila do not affect Taiwan’s separate arrangements with those nations.
Raymond Powell, director of the SeaLight project at Stanford University, which tracks Chinese maritime activities, compared China’s strategy to that of a boa constrictor. “There’s no single strike major enough to react to, just a steady tightening where each squeeze is incremental enough to explain away, but the pressure grows ever tighter,” he said. Powell called the radio challenges “a slow-motion quarantine that gradually isolates Taiwan without ever firing a shot” and said the action establishes a precedent that will be difficult to undo. “Today, it’s radio challenges. That lays the groundwork for tomorrow, when it could be stopping and boarding ships, redirecting them to clear customs on the mainland or turning them back for failing ‘inspection.’”
Taipei identified three specific actions during the campaign. In one case, Chinese coast guard vessels issued warnings to a Singapore-flagged ship, demanding port entry details and claiming jurisdiction. Two days later, the same vessels broadcast similar warnings to Beninese- and Liberian-flagged ships. Taiwanese authorities said that, to date, Chinese personnel have not physically boarded any foreign vessels.
Taiwan’s coast guard said it is monitoring the Chinese activities and broadcasting counterassertions of jurisdiction. Shen Yu-chung, deputy minister of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, called the moves a new kind of “gray zone” activity. On social media, Joseph Wu, head of Taiwan’s National Security Council, described them as “expansionism in disguise.” Alessio Patalano, a professor of war and strategy at King’s College London, said the campaign “de facto denies Taiwan its voice as an active entity in international maritime activities.”
The diplomatic rebukes came as Taiwan’s military was staging a five-day “immediate combat readiness exercise” aimed at preparing for a potential Chinese invasion or blockade. Separately on Tuesday, China’s newest aircraft carrier, the Fujian, sailed through the Taiwan Strait — its second transit of the waterway since December.
The escalation unfolds against the backdrop of President Trump’s May state visit to Beijing. Trump said after meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping that a closely watched $14 billion arms package for Taiwan awaiting his approval is “a very good negotiating chip” with China, breaking decades of U.S. assurances that the White House would not discuss Taiwan arms with Beijing. Powell praised the U.S. statement of protest but warned that “words not backed by real costs just teach Beijing that its strategy is working. The coils will keep tightening.”