Taiwan Sends Navy to Dongsha After Clash With China
After a 33-hour coast guard standoff, Taipei says its navy will back patrols around Dongsha as Beijing steps up grey-zone operations in the South China Sea.
- On June 2, Taipei announced that its navy will support coast guard patrols around Dongsha Island in the South China Sea.
- The decision followed a 33-hour standoff between Chinese and Taiwanese coast guard vessels on May 24 and 25.
- A 5,500-tonne Chinese patrol ship faced off against the 1,000-tonne Taiwanese vessel Taichung west of the island.
- Taiwan says Chinese vessels have appeared near the island 39 times over the past 18 months.
Taiwan’s government said on June 2 that the island’s navy will from now on back coast guard patrols around the remote Dongsha Island, also known as Pratas, in the South China Sea. The move comes after a confrontation that lasted 33 hours and that Taipei reads as a turning point in Beijing’s grey-zone pressure, the space between peace and open conflict.
For a country like Serbia, which leans on the principles of territorial integrity and non-interference, these incidents are not distant exotica. They show how major powers increasingly compete below the threshold of war, with methods that ignore the consent of smaller players and that erode the maritime rules on which global trade routes, and with them Serbian commerce, ultimately depend.
What happened off Dongsha
The standoff began on May 24 and ran into May 25. A Chinese patrol ship designated CCG-3501, weighing roughly 5,500 tonnes, squared off against the far smaller Taiwanese vessel Taichung, at about 1,000 tonnes. The gap in tonnage alone illustrates the asymmetry Beijing exploits: heavier hulls in the grey zone work as instruments of intimidation, without a single shot fired.
According to Taiwanese accounts, the Chinese ship broadcast a radio message asserting its claim before leaving a zone about 26.6 nautical miles west of Pratas. The message read:
The People’s Republic of China holds sovereignty and jurisdiction over the Dongsha Islands.
Taiwanese authorities point to a longer pattern: Chinese ships have appeared in the area 39 times over the past 18 months. Each incident sits below the threshold of armed conflict on its own, yet together they amount to sustained pressure. That is why Taipei chose to step up its presence, relying on several measures:
- bringing in the navy as support for the civilian coast guard
- denser patrols around Dongsha itself
- tracking how often Chinese vessels appear as a signal of intent
Why is the timing politically sensitive?
The announcement of reinforced patrols coincided with a visit by a senior European official. Czech Senate President Milos Vistrcil arrived in Taiwan for a four-day visit, leading a delegation of 40 members. Vistrcil has long been a symbol of European defiance toward Beijing, so his arrival amid maritime tension underscores that the Dongsha question is not seen merely as a local incident, but as part of a wider contest over who sets the rules in the region.
For European capitals, including those watching events through the lens of the transatlantic link, any shift in the South China Sea carries consequences for freedom of navigation and the stability of supply chains. Taiwan, for its part, is betting that a display of resolve will deter further incursions, while knowing that every escalation it makes raises the risk of a spiral no one officially wants.
Pratas remains a point where law, force and diplomacy collide. Will bringing in the navy deter Chinese ships, or simply raise the stakes in a contest that has run for months without a shot fired?
