How Taiwan Reimagines Maritime Security: Insights from the 2025 National Ocean Policy White Paper

In September 2025, Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council released the 2025 National Ocean Policy White Paper, the first comprehensive policy document on ocean governance since President Lai Ching-te took office in May 2024. Comprising eight chapters, it covers a range of topics from maritime rights and interests to ocean governance, including economics, the environment, and education. While building upon the general framework established under then-President Tsai Ing-Wen’s 2020 edition, the 2025 white paper also introduces significant contrasts in how Taiwan conceptualizes maritime security. For those examining how Taiwan understands and defines its own security challenges, two developments are particularly revealing. First, it broadens the definition of maritime security. Second, it reorients Taiwan’s approach from coast guard–centric law enforcement toward heightened awareness of hybrid and gray-zone threats.

Expanding Maritime Security: Multilayer Threats from Beijing

The 2025 white paper marks a major shift in Taiwan’s view of maritime security. The 2020 White Paper approached maritime security mainly through territorial disputes. Chapter 2, Section 2, “Maritime Rights and Homeland Security,” centered on issues such as overlapping maritime claims and the government’s efforts to maintain order in adjacent waters through fisheries patrols and law enforcement operations, and refrained from detailed discussion of other claimants’ positions or activities.  In 2025, however, the section was renamed “Maritime National Security Issues” and its focus broadened to include more non-traditional threats in the maritime domain, including several it explicitly attributes to Beijing. For example, it references the mainland’s efforts to exert pressure around Taiwan through the use of military drills as a threat to the security of prohibited and restricted waters. Another threat cited is Beijing’s deployment of unmanned vessels, such as the so-called world’s first unmanned research ship, the Zhuhai Yunhao, to conduct surveys in Taiwan’s adjacent waters.

The 2025 edition has also expanded with a new discussion on “Emerging Maritime Rights and Interests” under Chapter 2, Section 3. Specifically, it provides examples of lawfare, where Beijing has sought to change the status quo by issuing and enforcing unilateral legal claims and domestic legislation, including the Coast Guard Law and the Maritime Traffic Safety Law, both enacted in 2021. 

Taken together, Chapter 2, Sections 2 and 3 of the 2025 white paper have expanded to cover emerging and non-traditional threats, illustrating a more comprehensive and multidimensional approach to maritime security.

Strategies in Response to China’s Expanding Maritime Threats

Chapter Three, “Maritime Security and Safety,” in the 2020 edition primarily focused on the Taiwan Coast Guard Administration’s law enforcement activities concerning smuggling, illegal fishing, and drug trafficking. It also addressed how maritime security is affected by natural disasters, explaining the coast guard’s assessment and response measures. In contrast, the 2025 White Paper extends its analysis to include Beijing’s gray-zone tactics. For instance, it cites the repeated intrusion of China Coast Guard vessels into restricted waters around Kinmen and Matsu, totaling 679 documented unauthorized transits in 2024, which are described as “normalized law enforcement operations.” Since 2025, China Coast Guard ships have also deliberately circled the waters surrounding Pratas Island. In response, the 2025 white paper outlines a series of strategies to counter China’s increasingly complex maritime security threats.

First, it highlights the incorporation of new technology to enhance maritime surveillance and law enforcement. This includes the deployment of uncrewed vehicles, advanced sensors, intelligent port monitoring systems, portable infrared and X-ray devices, and AI-assisted data analysis to quickly detect and respond to illegal or suspicious activities. Second, it emphasizes rigorous monitoring of maritime areas to address China’s gray-zone activities. Measures include upgrading patrol vessels, integrating radar and uncrewed systems, establishing independent communications networks, enforcing use of Automatic Identification Systems on domestic vessels, and strengthening cross-agency cooperation.

Third, it promotes proactive maritime deployment to prevent foreign vessels from trespassing. This involves scheduling patrols according to key fishing seasons and ocean conditions, implementing targeted operations to deter illegal fishing, and dispatching larger vessels when necessary to maintain control of Taiwan’s maritime zones. Fourth, it seeks to enhance Taiwanese fishers’ awareness of legal and operational measures in response to harassment by China Coast Guard vessels. This includes the regular promotion of case studies on maritime disputes and law enforcement, as well as the provision of real-time reporting of incidents at sea. These measures demonstrate Taiwan’s shift from a coast guard–centric law enforcement framework toward a broader recognition of hybrid and gray-zone challenges.

From Concept to Reality

The 2025 National Ocean Policy White Paper reflects a strategic reorientation in how Taiwan perceives, manages, and communicates its maritime security. And concrete policy investments have already accompanied this conceptual transformation. In September 2025, the Executive Yuan approved a Special Resilience Budget, allocating $3.43 billion to the Ministry of National Defense and $894 million to the Ocean Affairs Council to strengthen national security resilience. Within this plan, the Coast Guard Administration received $206 million specifically for the development of uncrewed maritime vehicles. Moreover, in October, coast guard vessels were integrated into the navy’s command structure during the Haiqiang exercise to test wartime transition procedures.

These developments illustrate that Taiwan’s evolving maritime security framework is not merely conceptual but increasingly operational, bridging policy design with practical defense and surveillance capabilities. By moving beyond its previous focus on territorial disputes and coast guard–centric law enforcement to a broader definition of maritime security, Taiwan is preparing to meet the hybrid and gray-zone threats it will continue to face.

Yu Ting Chen is a research intern with the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.