Would the PRC under Xi stop satisfied if it could somehow succeed in absorbing #Taiwan#? Fishy sovereignty trolling around Japan’s Ryukyu Islands & the Philippines’ Batanes Islands strongly suggests otherwise! And lo & behold: an academic workshop at #China’s# Jinan University just “unanimously concluded” (一致认为) that the Batanes Islands rightfully belong to Taiwan, not the Philippines. This when unorthodox views on PRC territorial claims cannot be raised & debated without Party approval—certainly not in the brutal “new era” of Xi Who Must be Obeyed... It’s rather part of Beijing’s classic “Fake It Till You Make It” approach to asserting sovereignty. Professor @rdmartinson88 brings the receipts! Curated content from previous 21 CMSI Notes here: @NavalWarCollege/@ChinaMaritime Note 22: “Testing Boundaries: The Lan Hai 201 Mission East of Taiwan” From CMSI Director CAPT @ChrisHSharman, @USNavy (Ret.): China Maritime Watchers: Can a fisheries research ship become an instrument of statecraft? According to this latest CMSI Note, the answer is yes. In this new CMSI Note, Professor Ryan Martinson examines the 17-23 July deployment of the Lan Hai 201 east of Taiwan, arguing that its mission was about far more than fisheries research. Operating in the EEZs of the Philippines, Taiwan, & Japan, the Lan Hai 201’s operations appears to support Beijing’s broader effort to suggest ambiguity of the sovereignty of the Ryukyu Islands & the Batanes. Drawing on ship tracking data & publicly available Chinese-language material, this note shows how civilian research vessels have become another tool in Beijing’s expanding gray-zone playbook—& why they deserve the same attention as the better-known activities of the China Coast Guard.