TAIPEI — China's Coast Guard is harassing shipping with its latest patrol off Taiwan's east coast and trying to exert a fictional jurisdiction, Taiwan's Coast Guard said, adding that it had sent its own ships to keep watch, Reuters reported from Taipei on Sunday. The statement, issued late on Saturday, is Taipei's answer to the patrol announcement Awaaz Punjab reported on Saturday, when China's coast guard said via state broadcaster CCTV that it had carried out patrols east of Taiwan and would step them up — a report that carried no response from Taiwan at the time.
Source: Reuters via WNCY, Nov 1, 2026
Responding late Saturday to China's announcement of its latest east coast patrol, Taiwan's Coast Guard said two Chinese ships were involved and it had sent its own forces to monitor. Chinese state media showed video of one of its ships broadcasting a radio message that it was carrying out law enforcement and offering help should any be needed; the footage showed an unidentified fishing trawler, Reuters reported.
Taiwan's Coast Guard said China's "attempts to harass ships at sea through radio communications are a clear expansion of power that violate international law, undermine regional peace and stability, and deviate from reality". It added: "Our country holds sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the exclusive economic zone east of Taiwan, and China has absolutely no jurisdiction over any of Taiwan's waters." China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, recognises no claims of sovereignty by Taiwan; Taiwan rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims.
In the same round of statements, Taiwan's Coast Guard also noted a Chinese coast guard ship close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands on Saturday — the Dongsha approach Awaaz Punjab reported in full on Saturday, when Taipei said a Chinese ship with its tracking system off had entered Dongsha's restricted waters in the 13th such incident this year. The new development in this story is the east coast response above.
China has stepped up activity off Taiwan's east coast since June with regular coast guard patrols. Officials in Taiwan say they believe China is practising for a potential maritime blockade using overlapping military, paramilitary and civilian assets — that is Taipei's assessment of the pattern; Beijing describes the patrols as law enforcement in waters under its own jurisdiction. Taipei regards the area off its east coast as critical to wartime supply routes from allies in the event of a blockade or conflict, Reuters reported.
Taiwan's east coast faces the Pacific, away from mainland China. Coast guard patrols there — not only in the Taiwan Strait to the west — bear directly on the sea routes Taipei would rely on for supplies from allies in a blockade or conflict, which is why Taipei treats each new patrol announcement, and answers it publicly, as more than routine.