Mainland China’s ship activity near Taiwan hits record for third month in a row

Mainland Chinese government vessel sightings around Taiwan have reached record levels for a third straight month, as Beijing expands its law enforcement footprint east of the island following the announcement in late May of Tokyo-Manila maritime boundary talks over the area. Taiwan’s defence ministry said that in the first 24 days of August it detected mainland coastguard, survey and other official vessels a total of 118 times, surpassing the 117 reported in July and 111 in June. Those numbers…