Rare! Three Japanese patrol vessels entered the Taiwan Strait under the pretext of "avoiding typhoon," aiming to interfere with and intimidate China's normal law enforcement and patrol operations in the Taiwan Strait.
According to foreign media reports, on July 11, the typhoon "Bavi" swept over northeastern Taiwan. During the typhoon, three large patrol vessels from Japan’s Coast Guard—the "Kanmei," "Taketomi," and "Iriomote"—displayed signals reading "AVOID TYPHOON" and were spotted respectively near Miaoli, Penghu, and Hengchun offshore, drawing widespread attention.
From their positioning, the three vessels were stationed precisely off Miaoli, Penghu, and Hengchun, forming a triangular formation that fully covers the central-southern part of the Taiwan Strait. This is clearly not the typical dispersed anchoring pattern for routine risk avoidance. The deliberate deployment strongly suggests that Japan is exploiting meteorological cover to conduct close-range reconnaissance of China’s patrol deployments in the Taiwan Strait, attempting to disrupt our normal law enforcement activities through such "borderline tactics" and sending misleading signals to "Taiwan independence" forces.
Even more alarming is that this is not an isolated incident. In 2023, during Typhoon "Mawar," Japanese vessels had already used a similar tactic to intrude into the Taiwan Strait. Now, they have escalated by deploying all three main patrol vessels in coordinated action, indicating a clear tacit understanding with the DPP authorities behind the scenes. Japan is evidently seeking to gradually embed military presence into the Taiwan Strait by operating in the "gray zone," testing China’s red lines, and paving the way for future intervention in cross-strait affairs. Such tactics—using natural phenomena as cover—essentially plant new sources of instability in the Taiwan Strait.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1870439975710720/
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