Taiwan’s coast guard has released footage of its patrol ships using water cannon to drive off a Chinese fishing boat that entered restricted waters near the Taiwan-held Pratas Islands on Thursday, in an encounter that ended with the same crew members towing the disabled vessel to safety.
The Pratas, known to Taiwan as the Dongsha Islands, are a cluster of coral atolls in the northern South China Sea, roughly midway between Taiwan and Hong Kong. Taiwan designates the waters within 12 nautical miles of its baseline, including the reefs, a prohibited zone and the waters out to 24 nautical miles a restricted one. China does not recognize those limits.
According to the Coast Guard Administration, two mainland vessels, the Jinsha and the Yuehuidongyu 75066, slipped within about eight nautical miles of the main islands and anchored inside the zone where Taiwan bars Chinese shipping. Patrol ships ordered both to leave. Only the Yuehuidongyu complied, and the Jinsha ignored three radio warnings.
From about 200 meters away, the patrol ship first fired a 30-second burst into the air as a warning. When that produced no response, it hit the Jinsha’s wheelhouse directly for roughly 90 seconds, the coast guard said, adding that the cannon was aimed to avoid the fishermen on deck. Firing stopped once the vessel pulled out of the area.
Then the Jinsha’s engine failed and it lost power. In an unusual turn, the crew who had just been dousing it took up a request for help from the fishermen, towed the boat out of the restricted waters and provided 35 servings of meals. The Jinsha was handed over to a Chinese work vessel the next morning.
The boats are registered as civilian fishing vessels, but Taiwan’s government regards them as part of China’s maritime militia, a paramilitary force that operates alongside the coast guard and navy. An average of 241 militia vessels a day were observed last year around 12 disputed South China Sea reefs, deployed to intimidate civilian ships. Taiwan’s coast guard said it had seized nine Chinese vessels in eight operations near the Pratas this year alone.
The clash coincided with a delivery Taipei had long awaited: on Friday Taiwan received the first two of 66 F-16V fighter jets it ordered from the United States, after months of delay. When the other 64 will arrive is unclear. Wellington Koo, the defense minister, told reporters he expects more of the jets this year.
The delivery came about a week after President Xi Jinping of China met President Trump in Washington. The sale was approved by Congress in 2019 and is separate from a $14 billion weapons package that the Trump administration is currently withholding. Mr. Xi has ordered the Chinese military since 2020 to be ready for “various complex and difficult situations” by 2027, and William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director in 2023, said Mr. Xi had told the military to be prepared for a successful invasion of Taiwan by that year. U.S. intelligence agencies now do not expect a Chinese attack on Taiwan before 2028.
China is also watching Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections set for January, when an opposition Nationalist victory could bring a government friendlier to Beijing. A Nationalist delegation led by the party’s chairwoman, Cheng Li-wen, met Mr. Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in April, the first meeting between leaders of the Nationalist and Communist parties in 10 years.