Report Warns China's Gray-Zone Campaign Expanding Across First Island Chain
China's gray-zone pressure campaign against Taiwan is intensifying, according to a new government report presented to lawmakers. Officials say Chinese vessels made more than 2,600 maritime incursions around Taiwan in 2025 alone, while patrols are expanding beyond the Taiwan Strait and into waters around the First Island Chain.
China’s Campaign Against Taiwan
REPORTER:
2,600 maritime incursions in 2025 alone. That’s the headline from a government report delivered to lawmakers on Wednesday, detailing China’s escalating gray-zone pressure in waters around Taiwan.
REPORTER:
Not only are incursions increasing – they’re expanding in reach. Earlier this year, Taiwan's coast guard reported the first-ever intrusion into the prohibited zone around the country’s outlying Taiping Island.
This, along with an increase in Chinese maritime patrols and drills, is part of what officials say is an effort to assert jurisdiction over waters around Taiwan.
China views Taiwan as part of its territory and is taking a multipronged approach to assert its claims.
Using last month's Japan-Philippines talks on their exclusive economic zone boundary as a pretext, China conducted patrols in waters to Taiwan's east – looking to expand its influence across the First Island Chain.
Shen Yu-chung (DEPUTY MINISTER, MAINLAND AFFAIRS COUNCIL):
[China's] use of military aircraft and naval vessels to exert military pressure along the First Island Chain has drawn condemnation not only from countries within the First Island Chain but also from democratic nations around the world. Therefore, we believe China deliberately lowered the profile of this operation by switching to civilian government vessels. It appears to be an attempt to disguise or downplay its military coercion by presenting these activities as civilian administrative enforcement thereby asserting what it unilaterally claims to be its own jurisdiction.
REPORTER:
Taiwan is responding to the pressure.
The government passed a $25 billion US dollar special defense budget earlier this year. In addition, Taiwan’s cabinet put forward a proposal for a drone procurement project in mid-June– prompting the two main opposition parties to put forward their own versions.
REPORTER:
Wednesday’s joint hearing highlights how China’s pressure campaign against Taiwan goes far beyond military activity. It also includes diplomatic and economic coercion, legal warfare, and other forms of gray-zone pressure. Taiwan is responding with a broad, whole-of-government strategy, hoping it will be enough to meet these growing challenges.
