Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled four Chinese Coast Guard patrol vessels on Friday, 6 November, after they entered prohibited waters off Kinmen, the Taiwan-controlled island group that sits just off China's Fujian coast and is off-limits to Chinese vessels, the CGA said in reporting carried by Taiwan's ICRT, citing the Central News Agency.
Source: ICRT / Central News Agency (Taiwan), Nov 6, 2026
Taiwanese authorities said the Chinese vessels were in waters 3 to 3.2 nautical miles south of Kinmen Island. A detailed account of the CGA's Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch statement, reported by SeaWaves Magazine from Taiwanese coverage, identified the four ships by hull number - 14529, 14609, 14603 and 14533 - and said they were first detected assembling in two groups outside Kinmen's southern waters at about 2 p.m. local time, then sailed into the restricted waters at 3:10 p.m. from south of Lieyu Island and east of Liaoluo.
Source: SeaWaves Magazine, reporting Taiwan CGA statement, Nov 6, 2026
Taiwan said its patrol boats, pre-positioned as the Chinese formation gathered, moved in for one-on-one parallel shadowing to stop the ships going deeper, broadcasting warnings in Chinese and English and ordering them to turn immediately. The Chinese formation left Kinmen's restricted waters at 5:12 p.m., the CGA account said. Taiwan's coast guard condemned the intrusion and said it shoulders the mission of defending national sovereignty.
Source: SeaWaves Magazine, reporting Taiwan CGA statement, Nov 6, 2026
Beijing's answer, and a rescue at the same time
In a statement, the China Coast Guard said its ships were 'legally' patrolling waters off Kinmen - Beijing's standing position that these are Chinese waters where its coast guard has jurisdiction. Taipei rejects that claim over Kinmen's prohibited and restricted waters. No shots were fired, no collision was reported, and neither side reported injuries in the standoff itself.
Source: ICRT / Central News Agency (Taiwan), Nov 6, 2026
At the same time as the expulsion, other Taiwanese coast guard ships were carrying out a rescue mission together with the Chinese coast guard in waters off Dongding Island, after a Chinese fishing boat with a six-man crew capsized, ICRT reported. Two crew members died, two were rescued and two were still unaccounted for - a reminder that the same two services that shadow each other over sovereignty also still cooperate when lives are at sea.
Source: ICRT / Central News Agency (Taiwan), Nov 6, 2026
What is solid
- Four China Coast Guard vessels entered Kinmen's restricted waters on Friday afternoon and were expelled by 17:12 local time, according to Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration, reported by both ICRT/CNA and the SeaWaves account of the CGA statement
- The China Coast Guard said its ships were legally patrolling off Kinmen
- A Chinese fishing boat capsized off Dongding Island the same day; two of its six crew died, two were rescued and two were missing, with both coast guards taking part in the rescue, ICRT reported
What is only claimed
- Sovereignty over the waters: Taiwan treats Kinmen's prohibited and restricted waters as off-limits to Chinese vessels; China says its coast guard patrols there legally under its own jurisdiction claim
- Taiwan's CGA counts this as the fourth Kinmen intrusion in six days (twice on October 30, once on November 2, and Friday) - a frequency claim from the Taiwanese side that Beijing has not separately confirmed
Kinmen is one of the most sensitive points in the Taiwan Strait: an island group administered by Taipei that lies within sight of the Chinese mainland city of Xiamen. Coast guard - rather than navy - encounters there are Beijing's preferred tool of grey-zone pressure: frequent, below the level of armed conflict, and designed to normalise a Chinese presence in waters Taiwan says are its own. Friday's pattern - four ships entering from two directions at once, in what Taiwan said was an attempt to split its surveillance - and the fourth intrusion in six days will be read in Taipei as that pressure stepping up, even as the joint fishing-boat rescue showed the two sides can still work together in an emergency.