Zürcher Nachrichten - China deploys record number of ships around Taiwan as pressure grows

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 "grey 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 authorised 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.

- 'Submarine warfare' -

While Taiwan faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion, China's increasing maritime presence has also fuelled concerns about a potential quarantine or blockade to prevent ships carrying energy or other critical supplies from entering or leaving its ports.

China operates more than "120 oceanographic research vessels", the Taiwanese coast guard said previously. It is tracking about 41 that operate in Taiwan's waters.

They include the "Tong Ji", which circled Taiwan in May, tracking the edge of the island's restricted waters and refusing the coast guard's orders to leave.

Its activities likely involved "oceanographic sampling and seabed survey operations", which could contribute to China's "anti-submarine warfare databases", the coast guard said.

That was followed in June by China's first law enforcement patrol in waters east of Taiwan.

Earlier this month, China also announced "traffic control measures" for the Taiwan Strait as Typhoon Dolphin swept towards the region.

A Taiwanese security official recently accused China of "authoritarian expansionism" and warned Beijing was "constantly pushing the limits through an incremental salami-slicing approach".

Ryan D. Martinson, an expert on China's maritime strategy at the US Naval War College, said Chinese research ships are owned and operated by civilian research institutes, but the data collected is shared with the military.

"That kind of data/knowledge is highly useful for Chinese naval forces, which will operate in these waters in the event of a conflict," Martinson said in an email to AFP, noting he was speaking in a personal capacity.

"It is especially important for anti-submarine warfare and submarine warfare."

- 'Clear escalation' -

In the past couple of months, Martinson said he had observed a "very large increase" in the number of Chinese research vessels operating around Taiwan, especially to the east of the island.

"This is not a new 'play' in its 'playbook'. Rather, the novel aspect is that the scale of these operations around Taiwan is unprecedented," he said.

Chinese research vessels have been seen "operating in conjunction" with coast guard ships around Taiwan, the coast guard official said.

This month, China's "Xiang Yang Hong 03" research vessel was observed operating within Taiwan and Japan's exclusive economic zones, moving over deep sea trenches and telecoms cables, said Jason Wang, chief operating officer of ingeniSPACE, which analyses satellite imagery and ship signals data.

The research vessel was escorted by a Chinese coast guard ship and a fishing boat that is part of China's maritime militia, Wang said.

"This is the first time we have seen maritime militia escort a research vessel in Taiwan's waters," Wang said.

Wang said China's objective was to gather "fresh hydrographic data of the Ryukyu Trench and East Taiwan Trench to conduct anti-submarine warfare" and "deny US and other allied vessels from doing the same".

"All of these developments are connected, I believe," said Martinson.

"They represent a clear escalation in Beijing's efforts to exercise jurisdiction over the waters surrounding Taiwan, putting pressure on the country's leadership and undermining its sovereignty and sovereign rights."

T.Furrer--NZN