The move comes amid explosive growth in the number of ageing vessels that evade oversight and hide their identity with deceptive signalling.
While international attention has focused on Russia’s use of this shadow fleet to export oil in circumvention of sanctions over its war on Ukraine, the ranks of such ships have swelled beyond tankers and pose increasing maritime and national security risks to coastal states.
Taipei launched its crackdown after a dilapidated Chinese-owned freighter was suspected of cutting one of its subsea cables this month, following similar incidents involving Chinese and Russian-owned ships in the Baltic Sea.
The tighter inspection regime targets cargo ships sailing under the flags of Cameroon, Tanzania, Mongolia, Togo and Sierra Leone whose owner companies are registered in mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau, according to the blacklist seen by the Financial Times.
“The cable-cutting incident reminded us of the risks posed by substandard vessels. It is a risk to all coastal states, and we must fulfil our responsibility as a port state,” said a Taiwan coastguard official. “Moreover, we face an additional risk from China.”
Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and threatens to annex it by force if Taipei resists unification indefinitely. Since China often includes commercial ships in military exercises and uses fishing vessels as militia to assert disputed maritime claims, Taiwanese officials fear that Chinese-owned ships could be used as part of “greyzone” operations that fall below the threshold of outright war.
Cameroon, Tanzania, Mongolia, Togo and Sierra Leone are among dozens of states that allow ship owners to register their ships without being domiciled in the country. Ship owners often choose such flags of convenience to avoid higher costs, stricter safety standards and more stringent oversight in their own nations.
Taipei is focusing on those five countries because vessels from their flag register top the ranking of vessels found to have faulty documentation, by violating maritime safety or labour regulations or circumventing sanctions, according to the Tokyo MOU, a multilateral grouping for port state control in the Asia-Pacific region.
