Taipei, October 20 — Chinese coast guard patrols to the east of Taiwan are "highly destabilising" and an extension of Beijing's legal, political and information warfare against Taipei, the chair of a review commission appointed by the US Congress said on Tuesday. Randall Schriver, chair of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, told a forum in Taipei that the idea of a persistent coast guard patrol east of Taiwan was one of the most troubling recent developments he had seen, Reuters reported.

China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, has stepped up activity off the island's east coast since June with regular coast guard patrols and recognises no claims of sovereignty by Taiwan, including over the seas around the island. Officials in Taiwan, which rejects Beijing's territorial claims, say they believe China is practising for a possible maritime blockade using overlapping military, paramilitary and civilian assets. The American Enterprise Institute and Institute for the Study of War's China & Taiwan Update of October 20 likewise noted that the China Coast Guard began continuously patrolling east of Taiwan in June to assert Beijing's "law enforcement" jurisdiction, and that coast guard ships conducted intrusive patrols in restricted waters around Taiwan's Pratas Island from October 16 to 18.

China's foreign ministry reiterated comments from last week that those waters were Chinese and it was "therefore legitimate, lawful and beyond reproach for China to carry out activities" there. Speaking at the same Taipei event, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu said China had no legal claim to the waters off the island's east.

Later on Tuesday, Taiwan's defence ministry reported China carrying out another "joint combat readiness patrol" near the island with 27 military aircraft, including nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, Reuters reported. While an ostensibly civilian vessel performing law enforcement duties could seem benign, Schriver said, in fact it is an extension of China's sovereignty claim: "This is an extension of legal warfare and political and information warfare. This is highly destabilising if they continue to operationalise this law enforcement role."

Sources: Reuters reporting by Ben Blanchard (Taipei, October 20); AEI/ISW China & Taiwan Update, October 20, 2026; ANI reporting via the Taipei Times, as carried by LatestLY.