China is ramping up pressure on Taiwan, with Beijing sending a record number of government vessels to waters around the island last month, according to figures provided by Taiwan’s coast guard.
The 244 sightings of Chinese government vessels – ships belonging to the China Coast Guard, scientific research agencies and others – was more than four times the number seen in July 2025, Taiwan’s coast guard said.
That amounts to about eight ships a day, the official figures show.
China “is escalating its campaign to bring Taiwan’s surrounding waters under its jurisdiction and may be testing the willingness of foreign vessels to comply with (Chinese) authorities in disputed waters,” the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank said in an analysis earlier this month.
The numbers do not include Chinese vessels in waters near Taiwan’s offshore islands, including Kinmen, Matsu and Pratas, the coast guard said. If those are added, the number almost doubles, to 425. That compares to 233 Chinese ships last July.
