Mainland China’s ship activity near Taiwan hits record for third month in a row

Mainland China's presence of government vessels near Taiwan has reached record highs for three consecutive months. In the first 24 days of August, Taiwan's defense ministry detected mainland coastguard, survey, and other official ships 118 times, exceeding the 117 recorded in July and 111 in June. These figures represent the highest monthly counts since Taiwan began releasing detection data in July 2024, significantly surpassing previous records. This increase in activity east of Taiwan follows Beijing's announcement of Tokyo-Manila maritime boundary talks in late May. The article indicates this expansion of China's law enforcement footprint is occurring in response to these talks.