After five China Coast Guard ships shadowed eight Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels that entered the Taiwan Strait to escape Typhoon Champi, Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration (CGA) accused Beijing of exploiting a natural disaster to create an illusion of jurisdiction and turn the strait into ‘internal waters.’ No official Chinese response could be confirmed as of Oct. 23.
According to the Taipei Times, the Liberty Times, the United Daily News and Storm Media, the eight Japanese vessels sailed south along the median line of the Taiwan Strait from 6 a.m. on Oct. 22 and sheltered southwest of Cimei Island in Penghu, outside Taiwan’s contiguous zone. Five China Coast Guard ships followed and monitored them. The CGA said it tracked both sides throughout using joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets.
광고 문의 · 300×250Storm Media identified four of the Chinese ships by hull numbers 2501, 2502, 2304 and 2305. The Japanese vessels reportedly entered the strait to avoid heavy swells on the Pacific side.
CGA: sheltering in international waters is humanitarian
The CGA said that under international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Taiwan Strait beyond territorial seas is international water where freedom of navigation applies, and that the Japanese ships’ sheltering voyage was consistent with humanitarian and legal principles. It added that Japan followed procedures respecting Taiwan’s law enforcement authority and that Taiwan offered friendly support.
The CGA criticized the Chinese ships for using a natural disaster to tail and monitor foreign government vessels, calling it an attempt to create an illusion of jurisdiction and of the strait as internal waters, and urged Beijing not to use typhoons as a pretext. It said it would monitor Chinese vessels around the clock and take necessary measures when appropriate.
A recurring typhoon jurisdiction dispute
This is the third such dispute this year. Kyodo News reported that when Japanese patrol ships sheltered in the strait’s high seas during a July typhoon, Beijing lodged a diplomatic protest, which Tokyo rejected as unacceptable. During an August typhoon, China said it would impose traffic control on ships heading into the strait, and the Liberty Times reported that the CGA dismissed it as cognitive warfare over ‘jurisdiction.’
No official explanation from the Chinese government or coast guard on the latest shadowing could be confirmed as of Oct. 23. Beijing has consistently said Taiwan is part of China and that it holds sovereignty and jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait; in 2022 a foreign ministry spokesperson said the law of the sea contains no concept of ‘international waters.’ Taiwan, Japan, the US and others regard most of the strait as waters open to international navigation.
Differing readings of the strait’s legal status are now colliding even in disaster response. With little dispute that the safe sheltering of vessels comes first in emergencies, the challenge is to keep surveillance from escalating into accidental confrontation.
