Abstract

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched Joint-Sword 2024A/B drills in May and October 2024 respectively. This was China Coast Guard (CCG) participation in the large-scale joint exercises with the PLA for the first time. In February, China’s Taiwan Affairs office claimed there are no forbidden and restricted waters around Kinmen, which were security buffer zones in the Cold War years and regulated according to Taiwanese domestic laws aimed at Chinese vessels specifically. The CCG mobilized its cutters to intrude into the forbidden and restricted waters around the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, Dongyin, and Taiwan during the exercises. The operational patterns of CCG flotillas have shown a high level of self-restraint with no dangerous, unsafe and unprofessional conduct. While the forbidden and restricted waters in the offshore islands extend only several thousand meters in breadth, those of Taiwan and the Pescadores (Penghu) coincide with territorial sea and contiguous zones. Both domestic and international laws and apply to any country, and even China, without exception. The CCG is a law-enforcement agency and its patrols in these waters intend to subvert Taiwan’s forbidden and restricted waters. It seems that they are a kind of lawfare as well as cognitive warfare.