Taiwan is not ruling out ‘political warfare’ by China, coast guard says

China calls Mr Lai Ching-te, who completes a year as Taiwan's president on May 20, a ‘separatist’. PHOTO: AFP

UPDATED May 19, 2025, 11:51 AM

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TAIPEI - Taiwan’s coast guard said on May 19 that China could try to disrupt public morale on the island ahead of President Lai Ching-te’s one-year anniversary this week, after images surfaced on social media of a person planting a Chinese flag on a Taiwan beach.

China calls Mr Lai, who completes a year in office on May 20, a ‘separatist’, and has rebuffed his offers for talks.

Mr Lai rejects China’s sovereignty claims over the democratic and entirely separately governed island, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

Last week, Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said Beijing could hold more military drills to “stir up trouble” around the anniversary.

On May 18, images posted on Chinese social media showed a man who claimed to have sailed across the Taiwan Strait on a small boat landing on a remote beach and planting a Chinese flag, before returning to China. The video was later deleted.

On May 16, Taiwan’s coast guard said it had arrested two Chinese nationals after they sailed into Taiwan illegally on a rubber boat and landed on a beach on the island’s northwest coast.