Chinese government ships spotted in record numbers off Taiwan in July

By Brad Lendon, CNN

(CNN) — China is ramping up pressure on Taiwan, with Beijing sending a record number of government vessels to waters around the island last month, according to figures provided by Taiwan’s coast guard.

The 244 sightings of Chinese government vessels – ships belonging to the China Coast Guard, scientific research agencies and others – was more than four times the number seen in July 2025, Taiwan’s coast guard said.

That amounts to about eight ships a day, the official figures show.

China “is escalating its campaign to bring Taiwan’s surrounding waters under its jurisdiction and may be testing the willingness of foreign vessels to comply with (Chinese) authorities in disputed waters,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank said in an analysis earlier this month.

The numbers do not include Chinese vessels in waters near Taiwan’s offshore islands, including Kinmen, Matsu and Pratas, the coast guard said. If those are added, the number almost doubles, to 425. That compares to 233 Chinese ships last July.

The number of Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy warships in waters around Taiwan is also not included in the tally.

A Taiwanese official said last month that the activity points to a critical wartime risk: that Beijing may be rehearsing how to sever Taiwan’s Pacific supply lines.

“If the situation escalates to a blockade — which would amount to a quasi-war — we have plans to work with the navy to jointly protect Taiwan’s lifeline sea routes,” the official told CNN.

Though Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy, Beijing has vowed to bring the island under its control – by force if necessary.

Earlier this summer, the movement of ships from China’s Maritime Safety Agency (MSA) – a law enforcement rather than military organization – to Pacific waters east of Taiwan was noted by analysts and Chinese state media.

China’s state-run tabloid Global Times called the movement of the MSA ships “a sovereignty declaration with both legal significance and political signaling.”

Taiwan’s coast guard said at the time that the Chinese law enforcement ships were issuing radio challenges to the vessels heading to Taiwan.

A Taiwanese official last month said that while the Chinese coast guard vessels have so far not boarded merchant ships passing through waters around Taiwan, they have broadcast questions to these vessels about port entry and exit information to create the false impression that Beijing has jurisdiction over waters around Taiwan.

Such broadcasts have “already put pressure on these commercial ships,” although none of these vessels had changed course,” the official said.

According to the Institute for the Study of War, China earlier this month used a typhoon in the region to try to test MSA control of ships in the area.

“The MSA announcement said that passing ships must ‘strictly comply with traffic control requirements’ and ‘obey the instructions of on-site maritime management agencies,’” the ISW report said.

And they are just the latest application of China’s gray-zone tactics, it says.

China “likely intends to expand its de facto control around Taiwan as much as possible through means short of war, which erodes Taiwan’s sovereignty, strains Taiwan’s resources, and sets favorable conditions for future (Chinese) military operations against Taiwan,” it says.

Taiwan legislature approves $7 billion for drones

Taiwan’s opposition-controlled legislature approved a plan on Thursday to spend more than $7 billion on unmanned systems (including UAV, USV and UUV) over the next six year.

The planned purchase indicates Taiwan’s learning lessons from the armed conflicts in Ukraine and Iran to hopefully deter an attack by China, while at the same time turbocharging its domestic drone industry.

Taiwan has launched an islandwide effort to bolster its drone production with an aim to become world leader.

In just the first seven months of this year, it exported roughly 2.6 times more drones in value than the entire 2025, according to Taiwan’s official trade data.

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