Taiwan Warns China’s Maritime Expansion Will Persist Without Global Response
TAIPEI-A senior Taiwanese security official warned on Wednesday that China’s efforts to expand its influence in regional waters would continue unless the international community responds more forcefully, describing Beijing’s strategy as a gradual campaign to alter the status quo without triggering open conflict.
Speaking at an international forum in Taipei, Lii Wen, deputy secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, said China was steadily advancing what he called an “incremental salami-slicing approach” by expanding its presence across key maritime areas in East Asia.
Chinese vessels regularly operate in the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, where Beijing asserts sweeping claims over disputed waters and islands. Taiwan and several neighboring countries reject those claims.
Lii said Beijing’s strategy relied on the coordinated use of military ships, coast guard vessels, research ships and maritime militia to reinforce its territorial claims while attempting to transform international waterways into waters under Chinese jurisdiction.
“If the world fails to voice our concerns or take action, this expansionism will only continue,” Lii told the forum, warning that China’s “authoritarian expansionism” would persist without a coordinated international response.
Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Minister Kuan Bi-ling said Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines were facing a similar pattern of Chinese activities designed to remain below the threshold of conventional warfare while gradually changing realities at sea.
“When a series of actions accumulates, it may create an entirely new status quo,” Kuan said, urging like-minded countries to develop a common understanding of developments and prepare coordinated responses before future crises emerge.
The comments came a day after coast guard vessels from China and Japan confronted one another near the disputed islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Both governments said they had forced the other’s ships to leave what each considers its territorial waters.
Last month, China began conducting patrols east of Taiwan for the first time following maritime boundary discussions between Japan and the Philippines. Beijing described those talks as illegal.
China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and maintains that waters surrounding the self-governed island fall under its jurisdiction, a position rejected by Taipei.
Ocean Affairs Deputy Minister Sung Chen-en said Taiwan would work to ensure that Chinese patrols did not become a permanent presence in waters that Taipei considers part of its exclusive economic zone.
“They don’t have rights here, no matter what are their excuses,” Sung told AFP on the sidelines of the forum.
The forum also heard calls from international participants for continued support for freedom of navigation. U.S. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth said countries should continue transiting waters claimed by China and openly reject attempts by Beijing to establish new maritime norms through unilateral actions.
Her remarks reflected broader concerns among Taiwan and its partners that continued Chinese activities in contested waters could gradually reshape the regional security environment if left unchallenged.
