MSN and Washington Examiner report on a new agreement between the US and Taiwanese Coast Guard. Despite the flashy headline the Coast Guard is not going to protect Taiwan from invasion by the PRC. It is really a lot more like the network of working arrangements we have with other countries, but China, of course, objected. 

When I googled the agreement to find out more, the number of reports of China’s fury over the agreement, like this one: China denounces US-Taiwan coast guard cooperation agreement (yahoo.com), far outnumbered reports of the agreement itself. Getting China spun up is its own reward.

Again based on the Google search, the agreement received a surprising amount of attention in India with reports like this: US, Taiwan sign coast guard deal to Counter China – Times of India (indiatimes.com)

There was a surprising twist in that Palau seems to have been played a part in this. Taiwan hints at Coast Guard alliance with U.S., Palau (globalsecurity.org)

(With the help of Non-Governmental Organizations, we seem to be working toward an internationally shared system for tracking fishing activity and hopefully detecting Illegal, Unregulated, Unreported fishing that would benefit nations like Palau, one of the 15 nations that still recognize Taiwan.)

The Chinese have sought to isolate Taiwan in every way possible way so any kind of contact sets them off.

Meanwhile, China’s claim of sovereignty over most of the South China Sea has its routes in a claim made by the Nationalist Chinese government shortly after WWII, that Taiwan still supports. That puts them at odds with other nations including Japan.