TAIPEI – China has more than 50 naval and other official vessels operating in a wide swath of sea stretching from southern Japan down to Taiwan and off the Philippines, a senior Taiwan official has said, calling the threat level “obvious.”
Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, is stepping up efforts to issue details and maps depicting locations where Chinese warships and coast guard vessels operate.
“We’re staying vigilant about their activities,” said Joseph Wu, the secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council. “The simultaneous threat to Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines is obvious.”
Wednesday’s remarks were accompanied by a map he posted on X showing the locations of 53 ships, 34 of them navy warships, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning.
The carrier and its accompanying battle group were positioned to the east of the Philippines, with other formations off Taiwan’s east and southeast, along with three off the southern coast of Japan, according to the map. Wu published a similar map on X in May.
The defense ministries of China, the Philippines and Japan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This month, China’s defense ministry said the Liaoning was engaged in a routine training exercise not directed at any specific country.
China’s ties with both Japan and the Philippines have tanked in recent months. Beijing has been upset by Japanese support for Taiwan, while embroiled in an increasingly bitter standoff with Manila in the South China Sea.
“We are not happy to see any attempt to project deterrence that could undermine peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Thursday.
In addition to intelligence exchanges with partners, his ministry was “maintaining appropriate awareness” of Chinese military warship activity, Koo told reporters at the parliament in Taipei.
China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, though says it would prefer “peaceful reunification.”
U.S. Army forces in the Pacific have prepared the Indo-Pacific theater under the assumption that China could move on Taiwan as early as next year, U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes has quoted their commander, Ronald Clark, as saying. He made the comments at a forum in Hawaii on Tuesday, it added.
Taiwan was making efforts to build its own deterrence capabilities, Koo said when asked about Clark’s remarks. “China has never abandoned the use of force to annex Taiwan,” he added.
China recognizes no separate sovereignty for Taiwan, whose government says only the island’s people can decide their future and that Beijing has no right to claim it.
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