China and Taiwan coast guard ships clash near Pratas Islands

A Chinese coast guard ship pushed into restricted waters near the Pratas Islands on June 5, triggering another tense maritime standoff with Taiwan and underscoring how Beijing is probing Taiwan’s defenses without crossing into open conflict. Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration said the vessel sped up, made a sharp turn and ignored warnings from a Taiwanese patrol before the two sides settled into a face-off marked by intense radio exchanges.

The confrontation was the second near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas, also known as Dongsha Islands, in just under two weeks. In the earlier encounter, Taiwan said a Chinese coast guard ship stayed near the islands for 33 hours before leaving restricted waters after repeated sovereignty warnings. Taiwan later said vessel 3501 withdrew at 5 p.m. on May 24, after being reported 26.6 nautical miles west of the islands.

The pressure did not stop there. On June 6, Taiwan said a Chinese oceanographic survey vessel also moved toward the Pratas, which Taiwan described as the first observed coordinated operation by Chinese coast guard and survey vessels near the islands. Taiwan responded by dispatching the patrol frigate CG-129 Kaohsiung and two patrol boats, a sign that Taipei sees the area as a live test of response times, not a routine patrol dispute.

That matters because the Pratas sit more than 400 kilometers from Taiwan proper, between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, making them one of Taiwan’s most exposed outposts. The islands are lightly defended, treated by Taiwan as a national park with no civilian population, and widely viewed by security experts as a vulnerable point at the northern edge of the South China Sea.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory; Taipei rejects that claim and says repeated coast guard maneuvers, survey activity and drone-style pressure are meant to normalize a Chinese presence around Taiwan without firing a shot. The standoffs near the Pratas show how gray-zone tactics now do much of the work once reserved for more overt military signaling, creating uncertainty for Taiwan’s maritime authorities and adding another layer of instability to one of the world’s most sensitive sea lanes.