Bloomberg recently pointed out based on ship tracking data that since June this year, China has dispatched an average of two coast guard ships per month to patrol the waters east of Taiwan, with an activity area of 2. Seventy-one thousand square nautical miles. The China Coast Guard even announced on September 3 that it would conduct "normalized law enforcement patrols" in the waters east of Taiwan. The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission warned that Beijing's use of the coast guard rather than the navy could frame the operation as "law enforcement" while establishing the sustained maritime presence needed to block Taiwan in the future.
The real threat is not just the presence of the Chinese Coast Guard in eastern Taiwan, but the patrolling and broadcasting today, and tomorrow it may require merchant ships to provide ship registration and navigation information, and then require them to change course, stop the ship or even accept boarding. When sporadic actions are gradually transformed into "normal law enforcement," China may economically blockade Taiwan without firing the first shot.
This directly threatens Taiwan's international shipping credibility. What multinational shipping companies, shipowners, P&I Clubs and the marine insurance market care most about is whether the waterways can maintain safety, freedom and predictability. Once a merchant ship faces the uncertainty of being inspected, stopped, or boarded, it may affect route arrangements, route restrictions in insurance terms, exclusions, and premium assessments, thereby impacting Taiwan's import and export trade, international supply chains, and maritime lifelines.
According to international law, although the exclusive economic zone is not territorial sea, coastal states do have jurisdiction over specific matters such as fishery resources and marine environment. Therefore, when facing China’s so-called “law enforcement”, three questions must be asked: Where does jurisdiction come from? What laws are enforced? What is the basis of international law for coercive measures? China cannot simply rely on its own domestic laws to automatically obtain jurisdiction over the waters surrounding Taiwan and obtain the legitimacy to inspect, stop, or board normal merchant ships.
Taiwan cannot just condemn, but should establish an "international response mechanism for maritime inspections":
First, the diplomatic state of the ship’s flag. If China inspects a foreign merchant ship, the government should immediately preserve track, communication and video evidence, complete international legal requirements, notify the ship's flag state, and urge it to negotiate with Beijing, turning the incident into an international legal issue between China and the relevant ship flag country.
Second, state responsibility. File inspections, detentions or interferences in navigation that lack the basis of international law on a case-by-case basis; if shipping delays, cargo damage or other economic losses are caused, we will assist shipowners and countries of registration to preserve evidence of claims, so that Beijing will face national responsibility and compensation for damages.
Third, shipping risks are internationalized. The Ministry of Transport should establish a single reporting window to immediately provide major shipping companies, shipowners associations, P&I Clubs and the international marine insurance market with incidents of China Coast Guard interference with commercial ships, and publish cases, tracks and legal analyses, so that the international market can clearly identify the true source of risks.
Taiwan’s strategy should be clear: collect evidence on site, establish legal status, notify the ship’s country of origin, initiate diplomatic negotiations, work with international allies to hold China accountable, and connect the international shipping and insurance markets. Every time China conducts patrols and inspections, Taiwan becomes internationalized; China attempts to accumulate "law enforcement practices," and Taiwan accumulates evidence of its violations to prevent China from gradually establishing an economic blockade in the name of "law enforcement" and to maintain Taiwan's credibility as an international shipping hub.
