Beijing has ramped up its law-enforcement and survey operations around island since Tokyo and Manila announced boundary talks
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenGabriel DominguezandAlbee Zhangin ShanghaiPublished: 11:00pm, 24 Aug 2026Mainland Chinese government vessel sightings around Taiwan have reached record levels for a third straight month, as Beijing expands its law enforcement footprint east of the island following the announcement in late May of Tokyo-Manila maritime boundary talks over the area.Taiwan’s defence ministry said that in the first 24 days of August it detected mainland coastguard, survey and other official vessels a total of 118 times, surpassing the 117 reported in July and 111 in June.
Those numbers were far higher than in any previous month on record since Taiwan began releasing detection data in July 2024. Before June, the highest count of mainland government ships in a single month was 50 in April 2025, according to a tally by the SCMP.
That record-breaking intensity of activity aligns with findings from an August 19 report by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), which noted a “more sustained and assertive presence” by mainland Chinese law-enforcement and survey vessels in waters east of Taiwan.
Using commercial automatic identification system data, AMTI – a programme of the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies – showed that the ships’ activity around Taiwan between June and August was concentrated in waters where Chinese, Japanese and Philippine maritime claims overlap. Almost no such activity had been observed in that area between January and late May.
02:04Philippines accuses China of firing a water cannon at its vessels for a second dayTwo China Coast Guard vessels accounted for much of the observable activity during that period, while a third had been patrolling the area since August 4, according to AMTI. Within days of the Japan-Philippines announcement, mainland Chinese law-enforcement vessels hailed 198 commercial ships in the area, demanding information about their ports of call and crews, the report noted.
