00:00Taiwan's Defense Ministry is rebuking Beijing for a series of incursions carried out by China's Coast Guard,
00:05including Beijing's announcement on Saturday of a special maritime law enforcement operation.
00:31Defense officials repudiate China's jurisdiction claim to the waters east of Taiwan.
00:35This comes after a series of gray zone maritime incursions over the past few weeks.
00:39Gray zone incursions are hostile actions that don't rise to the level of outright conflict.
00:43Ocean Affairs Council Minister Guan Biling made a Facebook post detailing some of China's recent gray zone incidents.
00:49On May 7 and 14, the research vessel Tongji took provocative actions off the coast of Hengchuan and Hualien, respectively.
00:55On June 1, authorities announced law enforcement patrols to Taiwan's east, sending two ships to the area,
01:00though neither entered Taiwan's restricted waters.
01:02On June 3, a Chinese Coast Guard ship aggressively interfered with a maritime drill,
01:06and a division of four Chinese vessels operated off the coast of Jinmen.
01:09On June 5, two Chinese ships, one research vessel and one Coast Guard vessel, crossed into restricted waters around Protest
01:14Island, also known as Dongsha.
01:16And on June 6, Chinese authorities announced a special law enforcement operation to the east of Taiwan,
01:21sending a division of four Chinese Coast Guard ships to the area from Taiwan's southwest.
01:26This all comes right after Japan and the Philippines started talks on marking the boundaries of their own exclusive economic
01:31zones.
01:31The area in question is also claimed by Taiwan and China, which views Taiwan as its own territory.
01:37While Taiwan's foreign ministry has urged Tokyo and Manila to respect Taiwan's interests,
01:41China has gone one step further and used those talks as a pretext for its own claims to the area,
01:45according to Taiwan's defense officials.
01:47A government spokesperson has said that Taipei would not be subject to any legal agreement that comes out of the
01:52talks.
02:17This is far from the only territorial dispute in the area, but growing regional tensions could turn these
02:22minor clashes into something much more serious.
02:25Chris Ma and Larry Siano for Taiwan Plus.
02:27Chris Ma and Larry Siano for Taiwan
02:28Chris Ma and Larry Siano for Taiwan
02:29Chris Ma and Larry Siano for Taiwan
02:30Chris Ma and Larry Siano for Taiwan
02:30Chris Ma and Larry Siano for Taiwan
02:30Chris Ma and Larry Siano for Taiwan
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