However, the trigger is not Taiwan itself. It is an agreement between two American allies — Japan and the Philippines — to delineate a shared maritime border, which Beijing considers an infringement on its sovereignty. Slovak media covered the topic at most with a wire-agency headline; but beneath it lies a weeks-long escalation ladder.
What exactly China launched
The operation was organized by China's Ministry of Transport, which involved the maritime police of Fujian and Guangdong provinces. According to the state news agency Xinhua, it is meant to be a "special enforcement of maritime traffic rules in waters east of Taiwan island," aimed at asserting China's "maritime administrative jurisdiction." Hong Kong Free Press ↗Taiwan detected four Chinese government ships sailing out of the port of Xiamen and said it monitored them throughout the entire action. "China has no sovereign rights in the waters east of Taiwan," Taiwan's coast guard declared. Taipei also recorded, for the first time, a Chinese survey vessel coordinating its movements with a coast guard ship near Pratas Island — according to the Taiwanese side, this is the first observed instance of such cooperation. Arab News (AFP) ↗
An agreement that bypassed both Beijing and Taipei
The roots of the dispute go back to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s visit to Tokyo in mid-May. During the visit, Marcos told Japanese media that his country, due to its geographic proximity, "would likely be drawn into any conflict over Taiwan" — nearly 200,000 Filipinos live on the island. "Just look at the map: at the very least, northern Philippines would be part of it or feel the consequences," he said. Taipei Times ↗The visit produced a joint statement on a comprehensive strategic partnership on May 28, which included a decision to begin formal negotiations on delimiting the two countries' exclusive economic zones and continental shelves. The catch is that the overlapping zones lie in waters east of Taiwan — an area Beijing claims because it considers Taiwan itself its own territory. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the negotiations "completely illegal and invalid." South China Morning Post ↗
Paradoxically, Taipei also has reservations — for the opposite reason. Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung is demanding that any eventual agreement "not infringe on Taiwan's interests," since it also concerns waters Taiwan itself claims. According to the Taiwanese government, Manila and Tokyo assured that the outcome would not be legally binding on third parties, but when asked whether Taiwan would be invited to consultations, the Philippine side replied only that "negotiations have not yet begun." Taipei Times ↗
The escalation ladder
China's response is coming in stages. As early as June 1, Beijing sent its coast guard to "enforce law" east of Taiwan; at that time it involved two vessels southeast of Lanyu Island, which did not enter Taiwan's restricted waters. Taipei Times ↗Five days later, the patrol turned into a coordinated "operation" involving multiple agencies under the Ministry of Transport. The progression from individual ships to an inter-agency action mirrors China's tried-and-tested tactic of graduated pressure — without firing a single shot, but with each step bringing it a little closer to normalizing a Chinese presence in an area where it had not previously operated.
Why this is not just a local dispute
For the Slovak reader, the broader framework is key. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi already declared last year that a Chinese naval blockade of Taiwan would constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan — a formulation that, under Japanese law, opens the door to collective self-defense, meaning the deployment of the military. In March, U.S. intelligence called this a "significant shift" in the Japanese leader's stance; Tokyo denied it. The Japan Times ↗By negotiating a border, Japan and the Philippines are thus effectively treating the waters east of Taiwan as a matter between two sovereign states — indirectly circumventing Beijing's claim to the island. This explains why China is reacting so sharply: it is not just about fish and continental shelf, but about a symbolic challenge to the thesis that Beijing decides everything around Taiwan. For the so-called first island chain — the line of U.S. allies stretching from Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines — this is a test of who sets the rules.
What hotinfo is watching
- Whether the Japan-Philippines negotiations on the maritime border actually begin, or remain for now just a declaration.
- Whether China moves from coast guard vessels to PLA navy ships — that would mark a further escalation stage.
- Whether Taiwan gets a seat at the table, or remains a mere onlooker in its own waters.
- The response from Washington, which has treaty obligations to both Japan and the Philippines while also maintaining "strategic ambiguity" toward Taiwan.
