China Tracks US Warship, Clashes with Taiwan in South China Sea

China's People's Liberation Army Southern Theater Command reported that the U.S. Navy littoral combat ship USS Charleston "illegally intruded" into waters near Sabina Shoal, within the Spratly Islands archipelago, without authorization from the Chinese government, in the early hours of Tuesday. At the same time, further north in the South China Sea, Taiwan's Coast Guard reported a standoff with a Chinese Coast Guard vessel near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.

According to Southern Theater Command spokesperson Yin Gang, Chinese forces deployed naval units to track and monitor the U.S. vessel, which they accused of infringing on China's sovereign rights, endangering maritime security and undermining regional peace. A Philippine military spokesperson responded that the U.S. vessel "did not enter Chinese territory" and that no country has the authority to require prior permission for lawful transit through international waters. Sabina Shoal lies within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone and is also claimed by China under its so-called nine-dash line, roughly 700 nautical miles from mainland China and 80 nautical miles from the Philippine province of Palawan.

Taiwan's Coast Guard said its vessel Taichung was dispatched to warn the Chinese ship after it entered restricted waters near the Pratas Islands, and that both sides exchanged radio messages. The Chinese vessel transmitted that "the so-called Republic of China does not exist," while the Taiwanese vessel replied that "the Republic of China, Taiwan, is a sovereign and independent country," according to Taiwan's Coast Guard, which noted that the standoff was ongoing. At a forum held in Taipei that same Tuesday, the head of a U.S. congressionally mandated review commission described the Chinese coast guard's patrols east of Taiwan as "highly destabilizing," while Taiwan's National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu stated that China has no legal claim to those waters.

The incident comes amid diplomatic tensions between China and the Philippines over remarks by Chinese Ambassador to Manila Jing Quan, who had said on October 15 that his country could "easily win" if it decided to use force to uphold its territorial claims. Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro summoned the ambassador to convey that his remarks were provocative and unacceptable, and at least ten Philippine lawmakers called for him to be declared persona non grata and sent back to China. An international tribunal had rejected China's broad maritime claims within the Philippine exclusive economic zone in 2016, a ruling Beijing has never recognized, in a dispute that had already led in 2024 to a prolonged blockade of a Philippine Coast Guard vessel grounded on the same reef.