Taiwan upgrades maritime patrol capacity for vulnerable South China Sea outpost — SkimNews
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- Taiwan's Coast Guard announced its patrol and enforcement capacity around the Pratas Islands has been "comprehensively upgraded," including regularly sending larger ships to the disputed South China Sea outpost
- A newly-built 100-tonne patrol boat was formally stationed at Pratas after a wharf project was completed in July, "significantly enhancing nearshore patrol capabilities and immediate mobile response capacity"
- Chinese coast guard ships have increased patrols near Pratas, with the most recent incursion occurring earlier this month; China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment
- Taiwan's Coast Guard confiscated nine Chinese fishing boats around Pratas since the start of the year and repurposed them for reef patrol and marine conservation work
- The Pratas Islands sit more than 400 km from southern Taiwan and are considered by security experts vulnerable to Chinese attack; the outpost has an airstrip but no permanent civilian population and is a national park with largely untouched reefs
- China does not recognize any Taiwanese sovereignty claims, including over Pratas, and has pressed Taiwan by increasing its military presence around the island over the past five years
Why it matters: Taiwan's permanent deployment of a 100-tonne patrol boat at Pratas directly counters China's expanding coast guard presence near the outpost, giving Taipei a faster on-site response capability at a location 400 km from the nearest Taiwanese territory — a gap that made Pratas especially exposed to incremental Chinese coercion.
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