Taiwan reports close encounter near Pratas Islands

Taiwan’s Coast Guard said a Chinese vessel entered waters near the Taiwan-administered Pratas Islands on Saturday, prompting a Taiwanese ship to confront it and ask it to leave. The vessels came within one nautical mile of each other, according to Taiwan’s account of the encounter in the South China Sea. Taiwan’s Coast Guard said the incident was the 13th such intrusion near the islands this year and involved 16 Chinese vessels. Those figures and the account of the close approach came from the Taiwanese agency; the reports do not provide independent observation of the encounter. Separately, two Chinese coast guard ships conducted a patrol east of Taiwan on Saturday, Taiwan’s Coast Guard said. Taiwanese vessels monitored them. The agency characterized radio communications during the patrol as harassment and said Taiwan has sovereign rights and jurisdiction over its exclusive economic zone east of the island. China’s Coast Guard described the east-of-Taiwan activity as a routine law-enforcement patrol in waters under Chinese jurisdiction. It said it would intensify patrols to uphold China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights. The two sides’ competing assertions over...