As millions of families across China gathered for Lunar New Year reunions, more than 300 China Coast Guard vessels remained deployed across the country's northern and southern maritime approaches. A reporter who sailed aboard the coast guard ship Yongshu on the eve of the holiday describes dawn drills, high-seas evidence collection and the quiet routines of crews who spend weeks at a time beyond mobile signal.
At first light in the South China Sea, radar locked on, command teams ordered hailing and expulsion of an unauthorized fishing vessel, and the ship moved from exercise into normal patrol posture. Enforcement officers described operations as equal parts law enforcement and political signaling: the patrols are intended both to gather evidence against intrusions and to demonstrate Beijing's determination to defend its declared maritime rights.
Crew members recounted long deployments and the practical sacrifices that come with them. Many missions last a month or more in areas without phone coverage; before leaving they call family to offer New Year greetings, then settle into a routine of watches, maintenance and training that blends technical exactitude with improvisation at sea.
The ship’s routine is technical as well as symbolic. Unmanned aerial systems are launched from the flight deck to document incidents and produce evidence, a difficult task when wind, swell and the ship’s motion complicate takeoffs and recoveries. In the engine room, maintenance teams run constant inspections to keep propulsion systems reliable for long-range patrols and sudden maneuvers.
Evenings aboard Yongshu mixed duty with domestic rituals: cooks and crew wrapped dumplings and decorated mess decks with red lanterns, trying to make the vessel feel like a temporary home. That domestic tableau — the smell of hot soup amid the low thrum of the ship’s generators — underlines how these patrols are presented to domestic audiences as protecting “ten thousand family reunions” ashore by maintaining watch at sea.
The patrols combine operational readiness with political messaging. Sustained coast guard deployments signal Beijing’s capacity to maintain a persistent presence in contested waters, to collect documentary evidence of intrusions and to condition both domestic and international audiences to a routine of maritime enforcement. For regional neighbors and outside powers, that normalization raises questions about how persistent law-enforcement presence will shape encounters at sea, affect fisheries management and influence freedom of navigation in one of the world’s busiest shipping corridors.