China deploys record number of ships around Taiwan
China has long dispatched coast guard and research ships around the Asia-Pacific region.
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China has long dispatched coast guard and research ships around the Asia-Pacific region.
TAIPEI (AFP) — China deployed a record number of coast guard, scientific research and other ships in Taiwan’s waters last month, the island’s coast guard told Agence France-Presse (AFP), as Beijing dials up pressure on Taipei.
Taiwan’s coast guard warned of an increasingly severe situation, as analysts say the increased activity is part of China’s bid to map the region for submarine warfare.
China’s Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, but Beijing claims the island democracy is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to annex it. China also asserts jurisdiction over Taiwan’s surrounding waters.
The number of Chinese ships detected around Taiwan’s main island soared to a record 244 in July — an average of nearly eight every day, official data shared with AFP show.
That compares with 55 ships detected in June and 30 in May, and 58 in July last year.
In the first 21 days of this month, 152 vessels were detected.
About 60 percent are coast guard ships, with research vessels and other government boats making up the rest.
The figures do not include Chinese warships, which China’s military deploys around Taiwan on a near-daily basis.
China has long dispatched coast guard and research ships around the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in the hotly contested South China Sea, where Beijing and several littoral countries have competing claims.
China uses the ships to assert authority over the waters, government officials and analysts say, describing them as “gray zone” tactics — actions that fall short of an act of war.
The number of Chinese ships detected around Taiwan and several of its outer islands since May is 1,247, coast guard figures show.
“When we say the situation is becoming increasingly severe, we mean that the number of their government vessels in the waters surrounding Taiwan has increased, and there was a marked increase in July,” a senior coast guard official told AFP on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The Communist Party “has never ruled Taiwan for even a single day” and “without sovereignty over land, it has no right to claim economic zones at sea,” the official said.
