Until June 2026 China Coast Guard activity in waters east of Taiwan had occurred only within announced military exercises. In June a task group led by the cutter Daishan began patrols there, described by the coast guard as law enforcement including vessel inspection, fishery protection and rescue. On 4 July a second task group led by the cutter Xiushan replaced it and continued the patrols, with the service stating it would strengthen law enforcement in what it called China's jurisdictional waters. Taiwan's authorities reject the characterisation. The rotation drew statements of concern from regional governments.
Why it mattersThis module's standing question about the eastern patrols was continuity rather than occurrence, and a named task-group rotation answers it in a way that a detection count cannot: relieving one formation with another is how a service sustains a presence it intends to keep. The language matters as much as the hulls. "Jurisdictional waters" is the undefined formula of the 2021 Coast Guard Law, and the 2024 administrative procedures issued under it set out boarding, inspection and detention of foreign vessels in waters Beijing deems within that jurisdiction. Vigil describes the assertion and the instruments that express it; it does not adjudicate the claim, and records that no such enforcement has been applied to shipping bound for Taiwan's main ports.