Key takeaways
- China's Taiwan Affairs Office said on October 21 that coast guard patrols around Taiwan-held Pratas are lawful law enforcement operations.
- Taiwan's coast guard says cutter 3102 entered Pratas restricted waters on October 20 with tracking off and was shadowed.
- Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council calls it exercising jurisdiction before unification; the coast guard counts 15 expulsions in 12 incursions.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said on Wednesday, October 21, that China Coast Guard (CCG) operations around the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands are lawful "law enforcement patrols" meant to "safeguard normal navigation and operational order." The statement came one day after Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) shadowed a CCG cutter that entered restricted waters off the atoll with its tracking transponder switched off.
TAO spokesperson Zhang Han said China holds "indisputable sovereignty" over the South China Sea islands and adjacent waters, including Pratas, also known as Dongsha. She said CCG ships are "fulfilling their duties in accordance with the law" and protecting the lawful and legitimate rights and interests of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, as well as the safety of their lives and property. She also blamed the "separatist stance" of Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government for the danger of war across the strait.
The standoff northeast of Dongsha Island
Pratas is a coral atoll at the northern edge of the South China Sea, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) southwest of Taiwan. It lies between Kaohsiung and Hong Kong, but closer to Hong Kong (about 315 km against 450 km). It has no permanent civilian population, only CGA personnel, scientists and meteorologists, and it is lightly defended and hard to resupply.
The CGA said in a press release that its Dongsha command detected CCG vessel 3102 in waters southeast of Dongsha at about 05:00 local time on Tuesday. The cutter had turned off its Automatic Identification System (AIS), the signal ships normally broadcast to show their position. At 08:00 it entered restricted waters northeast of Dongsha Island. Taiwan sent the 1,000-ton patrol ship Taichung to shadow it and order it out.
Over marine radio, 3102 addressed the Taiwanese ship as "China Taiwan Taichung Ship" and declared: "The so-called Republic of China does not exist." Taichung answered in Chinese and English: the Republic of China, Taiwan, is a sovereign and independent country, and the two sides are not subordinate to each other, according to the coast guard. The Coast Guard Administration said the Chinese vessel had violated international law by entering Taiwan's waters without permission, and ordered it to turn back immediately.
The CGA says it has carried out 15 expulsions of Chinese vessels on 12 separate occasions in waters near Pratas so far in 2026. It describes mixed flotillas of coast guard cutters, state research vessels and maritime militia or fishing boats operating together. In mid-October the CGA used water cannon on a mainland Chinese fishing vessel in the restricted waters. The TAO then warned that Taipei must "bear the consequences."
Observers are reading: The four-step pattern from Kinmen to Pratas, and why Beijing prefers coast guard hulls to naval warships.
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What Pratas tests
For the people stationed on Pratas, the change is concrete. A cutter that deactivates its tracker and addresses a Taiwanese ship as if the Republic of China did not exist is applying pressure by presence. It does so without a shot fired. Taiwan's answer, shadowing, radio warnings and expulsions, is also a claim of jurisdiction, and the CGA's count of 12 incursions this year shows both sides are repeating their roles.
The atoll's isolation makes it a testing ground. Taiwan cannot easily reinforce it, and a coast guard dispute gives Beijing a lower-risk way to see how Taipei and its partners respond. Regional governments are adjusting. Japan's ruling party approved easing arms export restrictions in April, and the Philippines is among the prospective buyers.
Beijing has not said whether the patrols will become routine. Taiwan's declared aim is to keep its own administrative perimeter intact.
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