China Coast Guard conducts routine patrols east of China’s Taiwan Island; regularized law-enforcement operation necessary to defend rights, restore order: expert

Global Times

By Liu Xin Published: Jul 04, 2026 10:08 AM

Jiang Lue, spokesperson for the China Coast Guard (CCG), stated that on Saturday, the CCG task group led by CCGS Xiushan replaced the task group led by CCGS Daishan to continue law-enforcement patrols in the waters east of China’s Taiwan Island in accordance with the law.

Since June, the Daishan task group had been carrying out patrols, vessel verification, fishery protection, and rescue operations in relevant waters to ensure orderly navigation and activities, and to protect the legitimate and lawful rights and interests, as well as the lives and property of fishermen on both sides of the Straits, the spokesperson said in the statement.

The CCG will continue to strengthen law-enforcement patrols in waters under China’s jurisdiction and firmly safeguard China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, according to Jiang.

The CCG released the statement in both Chinese and English, saying the operations were “routine law-enforcement patrols” in related waters.

Routine patrols are intended to assert sovereignty through sustained and continuous law enforcement operations. Routine patrols in the waters east of Taiwan Island also show that China will continue such operations, ensuring that all activities in these waters are conducted in a more law-based, regulated, and orderly manner, while providing solid support for safeguarding China’s maritime rights and interests, Yang Xiao, a research professor at the Institute of Peaceful Development under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Yang noted that the CCG has established routine patrols in the territorial waters of Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands, as well as regular law-enforcement patrols in the territorial waters and surrounding areas of Huangyan Dao. In 2025, for example, the China Coast Guard conducted patrols around Diaoyu Dao for 357 days, underscoring China’s indisputable sovereignty over Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands, he stressed.

Over the past month, China has carried out a range of activities in related waters, including CCG patrols and maritime traffic law-enforcement operations conducted by maritime administrations from different regions in waters southeast of Taiwan Island.

China’s Ministry of Natural Resources said on June 18 that it had organized a marine environmental survey in waters under China’s jurisdiction east of China’s Taiwan Island to gain a full understanding of the natural ecological conditions of the country’s jurisdictional sea areas, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Over the past month, the CCG has conducted law-enforcement patrols in waters east of Taiwan Island in accordance with the law. Yet rather than exercising restraint, Japan has repeatedly lodged so-called “protests” and intensified its provocations. Against this backdrop, China’s decision to make these patrols a “routine” practice is a necessary act of legitimate defense and a law-based measure to stop disorder, rather than an attempt to create tensions, said Yang.

It is also a responsible step to safeguard the lawful rights and interests, lives and property of Chinese fishermen, including Taiwan compatriots, said the expert.