The People’s Republic of China (PRC), aka Mainland China, is stepping up its patrols in the Taiwan Strait and is monitoring traffic going through. The Philippines even claims that a PRC Coast Guard vessel fired a water cannon on one of its vessels.
The strait is much larger than the one that the Islamic Republic of Iran is now claiming as its property. The Strait of Hormuz is 21 miles wide, while the Taiwan Strait is 110 miles. The PRC seems intent on similarly controlling its strait just like Iran and Hormuz.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), which monitors traffic in the strait, reports that Chinese vessel activity between Taiwan and Mainland China has been increasing in the past three months.
There was no activity by China in the strait between January and May, but there were 111 sightings in June, 117 in August, and 118 so far in August. AMTI said the activity was concentrated in waters where Chinese, Japanese and Philippine maritime claims overlap.
The activity seemed to begin when Japan and the Philippines began negotiations in May over a security pact.
“China intends to claim that waters off Taiwan’s east coast are also within its law-enforcement jurisdiction,” Wellington Koo Li-hsiung, Taiwan’s defense minister, said.
Meanwhile, President Trump expedited China’s intent by removing the sole U.S. aircraft carrier from the region.
