In July this year, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) released a rare photo of Taiwan and U.S. naval patrols in the same frame, emphasizing that the United States appreciates Taiwan's partnership in maritime security and continues to support Taiwan in making substantial contributions to global issues, including maritime law enforcement exchanges and international cooperation. (Picture taken from AIT official community)
[Reporter Luo Tianbin/Reporting from Taipei] Taiwan’s defense line against the CCP’s “grey zone and gray harassment” is undergoing a major change! The latest exposure of the 2016 budget document reveals that the strategic status of the Marine Commission Coast Guard has been significantly raised, and it is no longer just a pure maritime police. The budget document clearly states that the Intelligence Group and Special Operations Support Center of the Coast Guard will officially send personnel to attend the "Taiwan-U.S. High-Level Security Talks" next year. This information not only represents the extension of Taiwan-US security cooperation from the traditional military field to maritime law enforcement, but also confirms that the Coast Guard has become an indispensable core player in the national strategic intelligence network.
In fact, in the face of the frequent and regular patrols in the waters surrounding Taiwan by Chinese Coast Guard ships in recent years, the Coast Guard’s practical experience of standing on the front line and refusing to merge with the ships is extremely valuable to the national security agencies. The Coast Guard has low-key participated in political and national security dialogues between Taiwan and the United States in the past. After the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on coast patrol cooperation in 2021, they have also accumulated solid mutual trust in projects such as maritime search and rescue and the investigation of chip smuggling. This time the Coast Guard's "Special Operations Support Center" is aligned with the Taiwan-U.S. high-level security talks, which is tantamount to formally upgrading past point-to-point cooperation into an institutionalized strategic intelligence docking.
Please read on...
In order to prepare for the more complex and heavy maritime patrol tasks in the future, the Coast Guard has added a third deputy director. With the loan of the admiral from the Navy by the chairman of the Maritime Commission, Bi Ling, Yuan Shenghua, deputy chief of staff of the Navy, will be seconded to the Coast Guard. Yuan Shenghua will be promoted to Vice Admiral today.
Chairman of the Maritime Commission, Guan Biling (left), invited Gu Liyan (middle) to board the Coast Guard Yunlin on January 30 this year, stressing that "it is the first time in history for an AIT Director to board a Coast Guard vessel, which is a big deal." On the right of the picture is Zhang Zilin, then director of the AIT Kaohsiung branch. (Taken from Guan Biling’s Facebook fan page)
In addition to deepening friendship with the United States, my country's Coast Guard has also taken a historic step in regional joint defense. Next year, the Coast Guard has compiled a "Ocean Harmony Plan" of great geopolitical significance. It is expected to send a large ship with Taiwan Coast Guard livery and carry hundreds of officers, soldiers and students to the Philippines for an eight-day goodwill visit next year. This is the first official visit by a paramilitary official ship from Taiwan to the Philippines in 53 years since Taiwan and the Philippines severed diplomatic relations in 1975. In addition, Taiwan has previously donated the decommissioned Kinmen warship to the Philippine Coast Guard, which shows that the mutual trust in law enforcement between the two sides around the South China Sea has entered a new stage.
In terms of the hard power of technological defense, Taiwan and the United States are also working together to build a maritime "Sky Eye Network." The Ministry of National Defense has recently spent nearly 500 million yuan to commission research and development from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is expected to complete the construction of the "Common Military and Civilian Picture (COP)" system by the end of next year. In the future, maritime patrol radar information will be synchronized into the Taiwanese tactical network of the national military with one click. In addition, the Coast Guard has also budgeted 1.2 billion yuan to cooperate with domestic Hanxiang and American defense technology company Shield AI to introduce American-standard V-BAT vertical take-off and landing ship-based drones, which have extremely high anti-interference and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, and will become a weapon to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s police patrols encircling Taiwan.
From the round table at the Taiwan-U.S. Security Conference, to the historic visit to the Philippines, to the comprehensive docking of maritime awareness technologies, the Coast Guard’s multi-national intelligence cooperation puzzle has taken shape. This budget is not just a bill, but also a strategic white paper for Taiwan to demonstrate its maritime defense resilience to the outside world. Faced with the complex situation of interconnectedness in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the Coast Guard will transform from the "Second Navy" into a key force in protecting the security of the first island chain through closer international intelligence links.
