Published On 4/7/2026
China said – today, Saturday – that it had launched a new coast guard patrol east of Taiwan, while Taipei condemned this step and announced, for its part, that it was tracking Chinese ships off the east of the island.
In a statement, Chinese Coast Guard spokesman Jiang Luo said that a task group led by the Chinese Coast Guard ship “Xiushan” had replaced another group to “continue law enforcement patrols” in the waters located east of Taiwan.
He explained that the fleet will conduct “law enforcement patrols” in the region, adding that it will strengthen these patrols in what he described as waters subject to Chinese jurisdiction, stressing that the Coast Guard “will firmly protect China’s territorial sovereignty, and its maritime rights and interests.”
Taiwanese condemnation
For its part, the Taiwan government denounced the new patrol, saying it was “an illegal expansion of power in violation of international law and a disturbance of regional stability.”
The Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council (which sets Taiwan’s policy toward China) said in a statement: “The Chinese communists do not have any sovereignty or relevant rights in the waters east of Taiwan, they have no jurisdiction over these waters, and none of their official ships have any law enforcement authority there.”
The Taiwanese Coast Guard announced that it had deployed two ships “to sail alongside two Chinese ships and monitor them,” and said – in a statement – that “Taiwan has sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the exclusive economic zone east of Taiwan, while China has no sovereign rights at all in any of the waters surrounding Taiwan.”
This is the second time in about a month that China has sent coast guard boats to the waters off the east coast of Taiwan.
Chinese military forces are conducting almost daily operations around Taiwan, which Beijing considers its territory, and this threatens the escalation of a diplomatic dispute in which the United States, France, Germany and Britain have become involved.
China demands jurisdiction over the waters surrounding Taiwan, which it considers part of its territory, which Taipei rejects. Tensions have escalated in the waters east of Taiwan in recent weeks after Chinese ships carried out an operation in the region.
Although the possibilities of an invasion or imposition of a blockade on Taiwan remain, analysts have also warned that China may resort to a naval blockade led by law enforcement agencies to impose control on commercial shipping traffic around the island.
