A senior Taiwanese security official has warned that China’s “authoritarian expansionism” in regional waters will continue unchecked unless the international community responds decisively, describing Beijing’s strategy as deliberate “incremental salami slicing.”
Chinese military, coast guard, research and maritime militia vessels now regularly operate across the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, asserting sweeping maritime claims over disputed waters and islands. According to Lii Wen, deputy secretary‑general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, these actions are designed to gradually transform international waterways into areas China treats as its own.
“China is constantly pushing the limits through an incremental salami‑slicing approach,” Lii told an international forum. “If the world fails to voice our concerns or take action, this expansionism will only continue.”
Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Minister Kuan Bi‑ling said Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines are all facing the “same pattern of actions,” carefully calibrated to remain below the threshold of conventional warfare. “When a series of actions accumulates, it may create an entirely new status quo,” she warned, urging partners to build a shared understanding and prepare coordinated responses “before the next crisis occurs.”
Their remarks came just a day after Japanese and Chinese coast guard ships confronted each other near the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, with both sides claiming they expelled the other’s vessels from territorial waters.
Tensions have escalated further since China began patrolling waters east of Taiwan last month an area where Japan and the Philippines recently discussed drawing a maritime boundary. Beijing denounced those talks as “illegal,” while continuing to assert that waters around Taiwan fall under its jurisdiction, a claim Taipei rejects.
Ocean Affairs Deputy Minister Sung Chen‑en said Taiwan would ensure China’s new patrols do not become permanent, stressing that the affected waters lie “within our exclusive economic zone.” He added: “They don’t have rights here, no matter what they claim.”
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