Thread by @JeromeTaylor

Taiwan expelled nearly 4,000 Chinese vessels illegally dredging sand from its waters in 2020, authorities told @AFP, a more than six-fold increase on the year before as Beijing seeks to heap pressure on the democratic island.

ph.news.yahoo.com/taiwan-expelle…

This gets less interest than the surge of jet and bomber incursions last year but it is no less significant.

China has long used civilian boats & coastguard to press territorial claims in disputed waters & harass neighbouring vessels -- dubbed "grey zone" tactics.

In the South China Sea, fishing boats and dredgers were used as Beijing took and then built military installations on atolls and islands across the heavily contested waters.

As a result, China now controls significant chucks of the strategic sea.

The sheer scale of the increase in dredgers sent into Taiwanese waters last year is remarkable.

In 2018 Taiwan said it had to expel just 71 illegal dredgers.

Last year it was nearly 4,000 (up to Nov).

Taiwan's Matsu Islands, which lie just some 20 kilometres from the Chinese mainland, have been a frequent flashpoint for Chinese dredgers.

In late October, more than 100 were counted off the islands over two days.

Footage from then:

@wen1949, the director of the ruling @DPPonline's chapter on Matsu, told @AFP that China "is exerting pressure with non-military means and we should cautiously respond through legal institutions and law enforcement".

Reporting by @ambermywang

Meanwhile Xi speaking via video link to @Davos: "The strong should not bully the weak." 🤔

https://twitter.com/wef/status/1353691198033113088