China is using regular Coast Guard patrols east of Taiwan to put its sovereignty claims into practice under the appearance of routine maritime law enforcement, according to Randall Schriver, chair of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
At a conference in Taipei on Oct. 20, Schriver warned that Beijing’s deployment of Coast Guard vessels east of Taiwan was an extension of its legal, political, and information warfare.
He said the Chinese vessels, many painted white, might appear less threatening than warships, but their ostensibly routine law-enforcement activities were being used to assert Beijing’s sovereignty claims, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA)….