China’s illegal sand dredging in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea have severely damaged the ecosystem, affecting fishing and the marine economy, academics say. Such activities are part of Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics, using commercial vessels to suppress the rights and sovereignty of countries in the region, and then dispatching military jets and ships to engage in increasingly aggressive maneuvers under the guise of protecting civilians.
At the International Conference on the Impact of Sand Dredging on the Sea in Taipei on Wednesday last week, Gregory Poling, director of the Southeast Asia program at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that China banned dredging in its territorial waters while subsidizing civilian vessels to engage in the same behavior under the protection of the Chinese Coast Guard, which has severely infringed on the rights of other nations. Since 2013, Beijing has been building artificial islands near the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), causing massive environmental damage. It is part of Beijing’s strategy to use its coast guard and artificial islands to deny access to the South China Sea to states that deny China’s territorial claims in the region.
For the past 20 years, Chinese dredgers have operated illegally in the Taiwan Strait. A recent survey found that holes from dredging cover nearly 40 percent of the seabed off islands in Lienchiang County. Undersea cables connecting Taiwan proper to outlying islands have been cut at least 27 times in the past five years by Chinese boats. Military pundits say that those incidents could be part of preparations for China’s navy to blockade Taiwan in a potential invasion.
China has been using civilian boats, including research, fishing, dredging and trafficking vessels, for military purposes for decades, part of a civil-military strategy to enhance its maritime capabilities. Those civilian forces have significantly increased in number as a result of a government subsidy program begun under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). In addition to about 1,000 commercial fishing boats in its “Spratly fleet,” China has about 200 vessels in its professional maritime militia, which have also participated in some Chinese military exercises, a study coauthored by Poling showed.
The civilian ships have also been part of China’s “gray zone” tactics, which use nontraditional methods to pursue security objectives without triggering armed conflict. Such tactics include paying a few hundred ships to anchor in the South China Sea to deter other nations’ trawlers and fortify China’s territorial claims. Claiming to protect the civilian boats, Chinese Coast Guard ships and military vessels have increased their aggressive activities in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, with Chinese ships shadowing and hindering other countries’ maritime patrols. On Sunday, a Chinese warship came within 137m of the USS Chung-Hoon as it cut in front of the US destroyer and Canada’s HMCS Montreal, forcing them to slow down to avoid a collision in the Strait.
Such illegal and provocative behavior by Chinese vessels to hinder free and safe navigation in international waters reveals not only China’s ambition to extend its territorial claims, but also its intentions to alter the international order. It substantially increases the risk of a disastrous conflict in the region.
To deter China’s unscrupulous maritime activities, Taiwan has amended laws and bolstered patrols to prevent illegal dredging and other offenses in its territorial waters. More collaboration with international organizations is needed to protect free navigation and enforce international law to maintain order and stability in the regions coveted by China.
Trying to force a partnership between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and Intel Corp would be a wildly complex ordeal. Already, the reported request from the Trump administration for TSMC to take a controlling stake in Intel’s US factories is facing valid questions about feasibility from all sides. Washington would likely not support a foreign company operating Intel’s domestic factories, Reuters reported — just look at how that is going over in the steel sector. Meanwhile, many in Taiwan are concerned about the company being forced to transfer its bleeding-edge tech capabilities and give up its strategic advantage. This is especially
US President Donald Trump’s second administration has gotten off to a fast start with a blizzard of initiatives focused on domestic commitments made during his campaign. His tariff-based approach to re-ordering global trade in a manner more favorable to the United States appears to be in its infancy, but the significant scale and scope are undeniable. That said, while China looms largest on the list of national security challenges, to date we have heard little from the administration, bar the 10 percent tariffs directed at China, on specific priorities vis-a-vis China. The Congressional hearings for President Trump’s cabinet have, so far,
The US Department of State has removed the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence” in its updated Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, which instead iterates that “we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait.” This shows a tougher stance rejecting China’s false claims of sovereignty over Taiwan. Since switching formal diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China in 1979, the US government has continually indicated that it “does not support Taiwan independence.” The phrase was removed in 2022
US President Donald Trump, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have each given their thoughts on Russia’s war with Ukraine. There are a few proponents of US skepticism in Taiwan taking advantage of developments to write articles claiming that the US would arbitrarily abandon Ukraine. The reality is that when one understands Trump’s negotiating habits, one sees that he brings up all variables of a situation prior to discussion, using broad negotiations to take charge. As for his ultimate goals and the aces up his sleeve, he wants to keep things vague for
RSS