Taiwan Responds to Chinese Coast Guard Operations in Eastern Waters

On June 6‑8 2026 Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence reported a series of Chinese provocations. Two PLA aircraft sorties entered Taiwan’s eastern ADIZ, while six PLAN vessels and seven official ships operated around the island. The Chinese Coast Guard dispatched four government vessels from Xiamen, and a survey ship coordinated with a coast‑guard ship near the Taiwan‑controlled Pratas Islands in the South China Sea. Taiwan’s defence minister Wellington Koo called the patrols a “provocative act” and “cognitive warfare,” urging close coordination between the military and the coast guard. Taiwan deployed more than five coast‑guard vessels to monitor and shadow the Chinese flotilla, broadcasting that the waters belong to Taiwan and that China has no sovereign rights there. Beijing justified the operation as a response to recent Japan‑Philippines talks on delimiting their maritime boundaries, which it claims infringe on Chinese territorial sovereignty. Taiwan rejected this claim, emphasizing its own sovereignty and the illegality of China’s law‑enforcement actions. The incidents also coincided with heightened Chinese naval activity, including the carrier Liaoning operating east of the Philippines. The coordinated Chinese coast‑guard and survey‑ship actions are described by Taiwan as the first observed instance of such provocation, raising concerns over expanding Chinese presence in contested regional waters.