Taiwan drives away 16 Chinese vessels in coordinated operation

Taiwan's coast guard said it confronted and drove away 16 Chinese coast guard, research and fishing vessels operating simultaneously around Taiwan's main island and the Pratas islands on Sunday, calling the coordinated operation maritime harassment and hybrid warfare.

Why it matters: Taipei's own figures show the pressure campaign scaling fast, with a record 244 Chinese vessels deployed around Taiwan in July against 58 a year earlier, and multi-vessel coordinated incursions are designed to normalise a Chinese presence in waters Taiwan administers.

Data as of Correction, Sunday, October 18, 2026, 14:30 ET: this item has been rewritten from a full verification re-read of the Al Jazeera and AFP report. An earlier version placed the incursion in the restricted waters of the Kinmen islands on Saturday afternoon and quoted a Global Times reaction; the report supports neither, and both have been removed. The vessel count, the locations and the hybrid warfare characterisation are Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration account, from its statement issued on Sunday; the article carries no direct Chinese response to this incident.

Taiwan’s coast guard said it took forceful action to drive away 16 Chinese vessels, coast guard, research and fishing boats, four of them identified as fishing boats, that operated simultaneously around Taiwan’s main island and around Pratas, also known as Dongsha, a Taiwan-administered island southwest of the main island. In its statement on Sunday the coast guard called the number of vessels unusually large and the operation coordinated maritime harassment, describing the fishing boats’ role as hybrid warfare, and accused Beijing of trying to unilaterally alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and create a false impression of jurisdiction; some of the vessels entered Taiwan’s restricted waters.

The incident fits a steep escalation in Taipei’s own counts: a record 244 Chinese coast guard, research and other vessels were deployed around Taiwan’s main island in July, against 58 in the same month a year earlier, and 152 were detected in the first 21 days of August. On October 1, Taiwan’s coast guard fired water cannon at a Chinese recreational fishing vessel near Pratas. Beijing claims Taiwan and Pratas as its territory and asserts jurisdiction over the surrounding waters, which Taipei rejects; the report carried no direct Chinese response to Sunday’s operation.

Taiwan drives away 16 Chinese vessels in coordinated operation

Sources