Sixteen Chinese Ships, Four Fronts: Taiwan Calls It 'Hybrid Warfare'

Sixteen Chinese Ships, Four Fronts: Taiwan Calls It 'Hybrid Warfare'

Sixteen vessels across four flashpoints

Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration said on Sunday, October 18, that it had confronted and driven away 16 Chinese coast guard, research and fishing vessels operating simultaneously off the island's eastern, southern and southwestern coasts and around Pratas, also known as Dongsha. Some of the ships entered waters Taiwan restricts. The agency called the number of vessels "unusually large" and described the coordinated movements as "maritime harassment" and a form of hybrid warfare. Its tally was 12 coast guard, research and other government ships plus four fishing boats. By about noon, the coast guard said, the Chinese vessels had been pushed outside restricted waters.

At Dongsha, two cutters circled the atoll

The most pointed episode came at Dongsha, a Taiwan-held atoll roughly 450 kilometers southwest of Kaohsiung where about 300 coast guard personnel are stationed. China Coast Guard cutters 3301 and 3303 sailed around the island on opposite courses, a manoeuvre Taipei called highly provocative, while the Taiwanese ships Cijin and Taichung shadowed them at close range and ordered them out by radio. It was not the first visit: the same two cutters entered Dongsha's restricted waters at 3:34 pm the previous afternoon. The coast guard says it has run 11 expulsion operations around Dongsha this year, involving 14 vessel encounters.

A Taiwanese fishing boat caught in the middle

Around 11 am, the Taiwanese fishing boat Wan Fa Cheng 11 was working southwest of Kaohsiung when a Chinese research ship, Haiyang Dizhi 8, and a steel-hulled Chinese fishing boat began interfering with its operations. The coast guard vessel Pingtung steamed to the scene to shield the crew — one of four confrontations Taipei says Beijing staged at the same time.

Twelve warnings for one research ship

East of Hualien, the research vessel Tansuo-3 entered restricted waters and was met by a patrol boat broadcasting warnings. Off Eluanbi in the south, the research ship Beidiao 996 crossed into restricted waters before dawn; the local patrol boat issued 12 consecutive warnings before it turned away.

Taipei's phrase: 'fake law enforcement, real expansion'

In a statement, the coast guard accused Beijing of trying to "unilaterally alter the status quo across the Taiwan Strait and create the false impression of jurisdiction." Such actions "will only lead to resentment among the people of Taiwan," it said, condemning them "in the strongest terms." Taiwanese officials sum up the tactic as fake law enforcement and real expansion of authority.

The water cannon that set the tempo

The Sunday operation followed an October 1 confrontation near Dongsha, when the 4,000-ton patrol ship Yunlin fired a water cannon at the fishing boat Jin Sha about 27 nautical miles east of the atoll. After three failed orders to leave, the coast guard sprayed water into the air for 30 seconds as a warning, then directed the cannon at the wheelhouse for about 90 seconds from roughly 200 meters away. The boat lost power, was towed out of the restricted zone and handed over to the Chinese work vessel Haiyang Shiyou 681 at 6:15 am on October 2.

Beijing warns of 'consequences'

On October 14, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua said China has "indisputable sovereignty" over Dongsha and its surrounding waters, accused the ruling DPP of endangering mainland fishermen, and warned that Taiwan would "bear all consequences." Beijing consistently describes coast guard patrols in the area as lawful and routine. Washington has also weighed in: after a maritime militia boat was reported off Hualien in August, the State Department called Chinese activity east of Taiwan deeply destabilizing.

A record 244 ships in July

Taiwanese official data show the pressure building for months. In July, 244 Chinese coast guard, research and other government vessels were detected around the main island — a monthly record, against 58 in July 2025, 55 in June and 30 in May. Another 152 were logged in the first 21 days of August, about 60 percent of them coast guard ships. Chinese warships, which sail near Taiwan almost daily, are counted separately.

Militia boats enter the picture

In mid-August, a fishing boat believed to belong to China's maritime militia, Minfudingyu 07902, was tracked more than 30 nautical miles off Hualien alongside a coast guard cutter and a research ship — the first known sighting of such a vessel in those waters. Taiwan's defence ministry says Beijing uses law enforcement and scientific research as cover to widen its operating space in peacetime and "create an illusion of de facto jurisdiction." Analysts describe the strategy as keeping the islands but taking the waters around them.

What comes next

For Beijing, coast guard cutters, research ships and fishing boats are cheaper than exercises and harder to counter: each sortie normalizes a presence without crossing the threshold of military action. For Taipei, every incident demands ships to shadow, radios to broadcast and evidence to collect, straining a coast guard that already faces near-daily pressure. Fishermen absorb the first costs — Wan Fa Cheng 11 was interfered with, Jin Sha lost power after being hosed. With local elections approaching at the end of the year, low-intensity, high-frequency confrontations look set to continue, testing restraint on the water and the pace of Taipei's response.