China Power | Security | East Asia

China Is Moving Toward a New Form of Coercion at Sea

China is pushing patrols into new waters near Taiwan, regularizing its presence, and deploying research vessels that can conduct military reconnaissance.

Since Beijing announced special maritime operations on June 6, its forces have grown more assertive – pushing patrols into new waters, rotating formations to regularize presence, and deploying research vessels that can conduct military reconnaissance. This all points to a new form of coercion taking shape. 

On July 4, the Global Times – a mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party – declared that China’s maritime patrols had entered “a new phase,” defined by a move towards “a more systematic, institutionalized, and long-term framework” and away from “isolated military exercises or patrols.” 

Recent deployments bear this out. Between June 6 and June 10, China’s Ministry of Transport carried out its first special operation in waters east of Taiwan, halting commercial vessels and requesting information on their points of origin and destination.

While China has announced mandatory inspections during past exercises, it has never successfully enforced them. This time was different. Chinese Coast Guard ships conducted inspections en masse through radio communications with all transiting commercial vessels. Even foreign commercial vessels – including three vessels from Singapore, Benin, and Liberia – reported receiving radio messages from Chinese authorities to comply with requests.

According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, across those four days, Chinese maritime authorities inspected 198 passing vessels, and even “rectified violations involving three ships.” The sheer quantity of reported inspections, followed by a public announcement of the results, demonstrates China’s ability to govern vessel traffic in Taiwan’s waters. Beijing uses that as grounds to assert jurisdiction over the island and to push the narrative that cross-strait dynamics are China’s internal affairs.

These operations may be testing grounds for an eventual quarantine, where China selectively permits commercial vessels to enter or leave, exerting immense pressure on Taiwan’s supply lines. If that is the case, the series of multi-day patrols serve two functions.

First, they test how foreign nations respond to maritime traffic controls. Knowing which nations elect to respond, and to what degree, gives Beijing some sense of what to expect. The United Kingdom, Germany, and France, for instance, issued a joint statement expressing alarm over the maritime........

© The Diplomat