Satellite Image Captures China Warship Standoff Around Taiwan

Satellite imagery of the waters around Taiwan on Monday captured over a dozen naval vessels engaged in a standoff during the tense final day of China's military drills around the island.

The images analyzed by Ho Chi Minh-based maritime researcher Duan Dang showed Taiwanese navy and coast guard vessels doubling up on Chinese warships operating at five points off the island's northwestern, eastern, and southern coasts, blocking their entry into Taiwan's 12-nautical mile territorial sea.

Communist Party leaders claim Taiwan as part of Chinese territory but exercise no authority over the island democracy of 23.5 million people. Beijing last week announced three days of war games around the island after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosted Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen, for a meeting on U.S. soil.

China calls Tsai a separatist and proponent of "Taiwan independence" over her desire to indefinitely extend the long-standing status quo across the Taiwan Strait, and for repeatedly rejecting Beijing's calls for a political union between the two sides. In a national address on Tuesday, Tsai said the Chinese government's reaction "is not the responsible attitude of a regional power."

Dang's satellite pictures, which were captured by the European Space Agency's Sentinel-2 Earth observation satellites, showed at least 13 Taiwanese and Chinese ships jostling for positions at 10:41 a.m. local time, with five additional ships from Taiwan responding in the south.

According to Dang, who authors the South China Sea Brief newsletter on Substack, the action largely took place in and around Taiwan's contiguous zone, a band—typically between 12 and 24 nautical miles from the coastline—in which states exercise limited control for purposes including protection of territorial waters.

Taiwanese TV station TVBS News broadcast footage of competing radio challenges on the day between Taiwan's vessels and warships of China's People's Liberation Army Navy.

"Your actions are seriously undermining peace, stability, and security in the Taiwan Strait. Do not stir up trouble and increase security risks," a Taiwanese sailor was heard saying. "If you insist on entering our 24 nautical mile contiguous zone, we will be forced to perform expulsion maneuvers."

A voice over the radio responded: "The 24 nautical mile contiguous zone does not exist. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. It is Taiwan's independence that undermines cross-strait peace and stability."

The Taiwan navy ship added: "We hope for peace and stability. Our country does not seek military confrontation, but hopes for peace and stability."

The drills from April 8-10, which Beijing called "Joint Sword," involved simulated bomber attacks and precision missile strikes on Taiwan, the Chinese military said. The Taiwanese defense ministry said China flew 91 warplane sorties and operated 12 warships around the island in the space of 12 hours on the final day, a new record.

On Monday, Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said it was "very absurd" to describe China's exercise as threatening to Taiwan. "This is a stern warning to the provocative activities of 'Taiwan independence' secession forces and their collusion with external forces," he said.

Taiwan's foreign ministry in a statement said China's "hyperbolic response" to Tsai's recent U.S. transit "not only increases the Taiwanese people's antipathy to China but also exposes the erratic and absurd nature of the communist regime."

"It uses any pretext to conduct military drills and undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the Indo-Pacific region, contravening the basic principle of the United Nations Charter that disputes should be settled peacefully," Taipei said.

China's aircraft carrier Shandong joined the exercise around Taiwan and sailed past the south of the island last week as part of its first-ever deployment to the Western Pacific. A U.S. Navy flotilla led by the USS Nimitz was about 200-300 nautical miles to its east by the weekend.

In the clearest signal yet that the United States was closely monitoring the Chinese drills, the Nimitz said in a statement on Tuesday that it was conducting its own operations in the same stretch of ocean, alongside escorts including the cruiser USS Bunker Hill and the destroyers USS Decatur and USS Wayne E. Meyer.

"We're here not only to reassure our allies and partners of our unwavering commitment to the rules-based international order but to work alongside them with a shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific," said Rear Adm. Christopher Sweeney, who commands Carrier Strike Group 11.

"Our carrier strike group is postured to respond to coercive behavior from those who seek to destabilize the region," Sweeney said.

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