Mainland Chinese government vessel sightings around Taiwan have reached record levels for a third straight month, as Beijing expands its law enforcement footprint east of the island following the announcement in late May of Tokyo-Manila maritime boundary talks over the area. Taiwan’s defence ministry said that in the first 24 days of August it detected mainland coastguard, survey and other official vessels a total of 118 times, surpassing the 117 reported in July and 111 in June. Those numbers were far higher than in any previous month on record since Taiwan began releasing detection data in July 2024. Before June, the highest count of mainland government ships in a single month was 50 in April 2025, according to a tally by the SCMP.

Full report : Beijing has ramped up its law-enforcement and survey operations around island since Tokyo and Manila announced boundary talks.