OSINT disposition · updated daily

PLA Navy Tracker

There is no Chinese equivalent of the US fleet tracker, because Beijing publishes no deployments. So this is built the only honest way — from the disclosers and open sensors: Taiwan's daily activity counts, free satellite imagery over the home berths, and graded press sightings, fused by our Argus engine. Warships run dark and AIS is spoofable, so absence is not evidence of absence.

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110°E120°E130°E140°E10°N20°N30°N40°NTaiwan StraitMiyako StraitBashi ChannelScarboroughSecond ThomasTaiwan MND daily PLA report (2026-09-27): 2 PLA aircraft sorties, 5 PLAN vessels, 6 coast-guard vessels around Taiwan — 28 sources, grade ASouth Korea and Europe: advancing cooperation in a changing security environment - The International Institute for Strategic Studies — 26 sources, grade AChina is building an AI system for tailoring its foreign propaganda — 22 sources, grade AThe U.S.-China Summit: Too Big and Too Small to Fail - CSIS | Center for Strategic and International Studies — 21 sources, grade BJapan’s critical-minerals strategy - The International Institute for Strategic Studies — 21 sources, grade AChina’s Navy in 2025: An Ocean of Open-Source Documentation — 19 sources, grade ABeijing picked 19,000 companies to win. Many are already in our supply chains — 16 sources, grade ATo deter China, we need a global alliance of democracies — 15 sources, grade AA new claim on the Batanes, from an old Chinese playbook — 13 sources, grade AAir Force, Japan Exercise Tsunami Evacuation Procedures — 12 sources, grade AEU, speak out about China. You owe it to the Indo-Pacific — 11 sources, grade ATrump and Xi to meet twice more after summit fails to resolve tensions — 9 sources, grade BReduction Expected for Japan Cost-of-Living Allowance Rates — 9 sources, grade AIndia’s relationship with China should be understood sector-by-sector — 8 sources, grade AU.S. Taiwan policy unchanged after Trump-Xi summit: Deputy FM — 7 sources, grade BTraditional industries see limited AI gains as K-shaped economy widens: Expert — 7 sources, grade BHow China is rethinking tank survival against FPVs and top-attack threats — 6 sources, grade BHumanoid Robots and China’s Vision of the Future — 5 sources, grade BU.S. may delay Taiwan arms sale amid more Trump-Xi meetings: Analysts — 4 sources, grade BNew Evidence China Is Building A Massive Mothership For Drone Submarines — 4 sources, grade BThe Air Force says its China think-tank will continue. It’s director says it’s basically dead. — 4 sources, grade BMostly dry weather to give way to showers Thursday: CWA — 3 sources, grade BChina sends two pandas to zoo in American Atlanta - TV — 3 sources, grade DFor North Korea, AI is a cybercrime force multiplier — 3 sources, grade AJapan Defense Focus No.199 - mod.go.jp — 3 sources, grade AIndonesia’s First Aircraft Carrier: Former Italian Ship ‘Garibaldi’ Reaches Domestic Waters — 3 sources, grade BMarshall Islands, Tuvalu voice support for Taiwan at U.N. assembly — 3 sources, grade BSouth Korea inducts first locally developed fighter jet into air force — 3 sources, grade BUS military families face weeks in hotels amid Okinawa housing shortage - stripes.com — 3 sources, grade BTakaichi’s Pre-emptive Diplomacy: What Japan Needs From the Trump-Xi Summit — 3 sources, grade BNorth Korea Tests New Hypersonic Missile — 3 sources, grade AThe Drones of Bannockburn: A Fourteenth-Century Battle’s Bloody Lessons for Taiwan’s Defense — 2 sources, grade BChina, U.S. reach consensus on eight outcomes in Xi's visit - Xinhua — 2 sources, grade DYulin (Yalong Bay) — Carrier & SSBN base — South Sea FleetYulin (Yalong Bay)Zhanjiang — South Sea Fleet HQZhanjiangQingdao — Carrier homeport — North Sea FleetQingdaoDalian — Carrier build / fitting-out yardDalianZhoushan / Ningbo — East Sea FleetZhoushan / NingboJiangnan, Shanghai — Carrier & Type 055 shipyardJiangnan, Shanghai
gold diamond = PLAN naval base (click for imagery)dot = corroborated event (size = sources, colour = grade)○ = chokepoint

OSINT inference · not a position feed

PLA Navy — disposition snapshot

No state publishes PLAN deployments. This fuses the disclosers — Taiwan's MND daily tally, Japan's MoD, positional OSINT — and graded press sightings. Warships run dark and AIS is spoofable, so absence is not evidence of absence.

Around Taiwan — daily activity (Taiwan MND, grade A)

6

PLAN vessels

5

coast guard

5

aircraft

2026-09-266 ships · 5 CCG · 5 air · median crossed
2026-09-256 ships · 5 CCG · 2 air
2026-09-246 ships · 6 CCG · 10 air · median crossed
2026-09-236 ships · 6 CCG · 10 air · median crossed
2026-09-226 ships · 3 CCG · 4 air · median crossed
2026-09-217 ships · 4 CCG · 4 air · median crossed

Positional fixes: AIS quiet · 1 military aircraft tracked · no active firing zones.

Reported movements & sightings (graded)

C

Why Taiwan’s coastguard vessel transfer to the Philippines has sparked a double outcry — South China Morning Post

A

China Maritime Studies Institute Celebrates 20 Years with Lecture by Former Chief of Naval Operations, Panel Discussion — Andrew Erickson / CMSI

B

What Naval Power Cannot Buy — CIMSEC

B

Retired U.S. admiral urges Taiwan arms sales after Trump-Xi summit — Central News Agency (Focus Taiwan)

C

China tested a handheld submarine detector. It tracked a subway train underground — South China Morning Post

A

CMSI’s 20th Anniversary! China Maritime Studies Institute Established Two Decades Ago within Naval War College — Andrew Erickson / CMSI

B

2-year sentences sought for Chinese men who illegally sailed to Taiwan — Central News Agency (Focus Taiwan)

F

MOFA thanks eight countries for backing Taiwan Strait ‘status quo’ - Taipei Times — Unknown / Other

Satellite — latest free imagery over home bases (ESA Copernicus, 10 m)

A carrier or large combatant is countable at a known pier. SAR sees through cloud. Click a base to open the imagery and count hulls.

Dalianoptical 2026-09-24 · SAR 2026-09-22Jiangnan / Changxing, Shanghaioptical 2026-09-26 · SAR 2026-09-15Qingdao (Jiaozhou Bay)optical 2026-09-24 · SAR 2026-09-26Yulin (Yalong Bay), Hainanoptical 2026-09-23 · SAR 2026-09-26Zhanjiang, Guangdongoptical 2026-09-23 · SAR 2026-09-26Zhoushan / Ningbooptical 2026-09-26 · SAR 2026-09-15

Method: Argus Layer-1 collection, China-nexus filtered. The fix you can trust least is the one Beijing most wants you to see — the empty berth at Yulin tells you more than any transponder. What this disposition means runs in the Pacific Brief.

The tracker shows the picture. The brief is the judgment.

This page shows what open sources reveal about the PLA Navy. What that disposition means — the assessed read, the rival interpretation, PHIA likelihood language — runs in the weekly Pacific Brief.

Method: Taiwan MND daily PLA-activity counts (official, grade A); free ESA Copernicus Sentinel-1 SAR / Sentinel-2 optical over fixed PLAN bases (10 m — a carrier is countable at a pier); China-area corroborated events from the Argus collection engine; graded press/official sightings filtered to a China nexus. Source grades follow NATO Admiralty reliability. This is inference from reporting, not a live position feed. Full methodology →