TAIPEI, Oct 8, 2026
A Chinese fishing boat that doubles as a militia vessel has been spotted off Taiwan’s Pacific coast for the first time. The sighting appears in a surveillance report by Taiwan’s Apex Aviation, which Reuters reviewed. The vessel, the Minfudingyu 07902, was seen in mid-August operating alongside a Chinese coast guard cutter and a research vessel.
Apex says its reconnaissance aircraft detected the group more than 30 nautical miles off Hualien county, with the three vessels spread across a radius of about 10 nautical miles. The company documented the cluster with radar screenshots, infrared imagery and automatic-identification system data. It withheld the exact date, citing concerns about counter-reconnaissance against its operations.
Two senior Taiwanese officials, speaking anonymously, confirmed the vessels’ presence. They named the cutter as 2502 and the research ship as Xiang Yang Hong 03. One official said the fishing boat belongs to the People’s Liberation Army’s maritime militia and was operating in coordination with coast guard harassment drills. He said militia boats exist “to conduct substantive harassment.” The other official said the three craft were in an area Chinese vessels rarely use and had been placed under heightened monitoring.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said Beijing is using law enforcement and scientific research as cover to widen its operations in peacetime and project an impression of de facto jurisdiction. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office and defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
The east coast matters because Taipei treats it as critical to wartime supply routes from allies. China has stepped up activity there since June, with regular coast guard patrols. Taiwanese officials believe Beijing is rehearsing a possible maritime blockade using overlapping military, paramilitary and civilian assets. Apex’s defence and security director, Honor Hung, said warships, coast guard vessels, research ships and some civilian craft continue to operate in overlapping ways around Taiwan. He cautioned that a single tracking could not establish the vessels’ missions or whether they were coordinating.
What our report found
This sighting fits a pattern we documented in our investigation of China’s distant-water fishing fleet, first published in January 2023. That report predates the Taiwan sighting and does not address it. It examined how the fleet operates across every ocean and how often it clashes with the domestic laws of other states and with UNCLOS.
Our report found that Beijing officially counts about 2,500 distant-water vessels, while multiple studies put the real number above 18,000. It also found that China tops the IUU Fishing Index, with more than 60 percent of its vessels involved in illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing, according to the 2021 rankings. We documented crews switching off transponders near other countries’ waters, with AIS gaps of at least eight hours. Our analysis also covered the fleet’s use for espionage and reconnaissance and its role in asserting territorial claims.
The Apex sighting shows how that ambiguity plays out near Taiwan. The militia, which analysts say lets Beijing assert maritime claims while keeping a civilian appearance, dates to the 1950s and has mostly been seen around South China Sea flashpoints. A vessel that looks like a fishing boat can serve a state purpose, and it operates in the same waters as coast guard and research ships. Our findings on the fleet’s size, opaque tracking and dual use help explain why the Minfudingyu’s appearance off Hualien deserves close attention.
Sources: The Straits Times (Oct 8, 2026); IJ-Reportika, “An Investigation into the Dubious Chinese Distant-Water Fishing Fleet (DWF)”
