US trains Taiwan coast guard as China expands patrols
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Taiwan's coast guard said on Aug 14 that the US Coast Guard is running training from Aug 10-21 focused on "small-craft operations, team coordination and maritime patrols" to improve Taipei's "maritime law enforcement capabilities" in "complex maritime operational environments."
- The exercise follows China's first-ever patrols in June of an area in the Western Pacific near Taiwan's east coast, which Taipei condemned as "provocative" and "expansionism in disguise."
- Taiwan and the US signed a 2021 memorandum of understanding to boost maritime cooperation between their coast guards, though joint training was rarely publicized — a pattern now shifting after the de facto US embassy in Taiwan posted a July Facebook photo of a US coast guard ship sailing alongside a Taiwanese vessel.
- China has in recent years stepped up military and coast guard activity near Taiwan, deploying fighter jets, warships and other vessels around the island on an almost daily basis, while claiming surrounding waters fall under its jurisdiction.
- Taipei rejects Beijing's territorial claim and insists it is a sovereign island democracy, framing Chinese patrols as encroachments on its maritime space.
- Taiwan's coast guard declined to provide further details about the US training, a notable contrast with the unusually public framing of the otherwise routine bilateral arrangement.
Why it matters: Publicizing a coast guard training that was kept quiet for years signals Washington's willingness to be seen helping Taiwan defend its waters at a moment when China is patrolling new zones off the island's east coast for the first time, reframing maritime law enforcement as a frontline layer of deterrence beyond military responses.
Ask SkimNews
