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 (2026-08-19): 20 PLA aircraft sorties, 7 PLAN vessels, 6 coast-guard vessels around Taiwan — 26 sources, grade ANorth Korea’s naval buildup will stretch allied forces across the Indo-Pacific — 20 sources, grade AChina’s Navy in 2025: An Ocean of Open-Source Documentation — 19 sources, grade AChina understands the power of AI. Understand Chinese AI with ASPI’s AI Under Heaven — 18 sources, grade AJapan Plans to Transform Military Capabilities with Drones, Boost Domestic Defense Industry — 16 sources, grade ABookshelf: the next China is still China — 15 sources, grade AU.S. to Fund Philippine Coast Guard Base Expansion Near South China Sea — 13 sources, grade ABeijing is testing who will stand by Taiwan — 12 sources, grade AIs Japan Decoupling From China? — 12 sources, grade BNorth Korea is learning from war. The US–South Korea alliance must keep pace — 11 sources, grade AChina pushes harder in South China Sea – as global attention drifts away — 11 sources, grade ATrump says North Korea's Kim responded positively to request for talks — 10 sources, grade BEU, speak out about China. You owe it to the Indo-Pacific — 9 sources, grade AIndonesia’s China exercise was a judgement failure, not an alignment shift — 9 sources, grade APrice of niche rare earth jumps on fears of renewed Chinese export controls — 9 sources, grade BReduction Expected for Japan Cost-of-Living Allowance Rates — 8 sources, grade AChina’s Reusable Space Launch Booster Recoveries Have Major Military Implications — 7 sources, grade BChina braces for back-to-back typhoons as extreme weather risks rise — 6 sources, grade BJoint Russian, Chinese Navy Patrol Sails Near Japan — 6 sources, grade ATaiwan holds air-raid evacuation drills to prepare for possible China invasion — 6 sources, grade BU.S. Reveals Coast Guard Cooperation with Taiwan — 5 sources, grade ANorth Korea launches missile barrage after dismissing Trump overture — 5 sources, grade BUSS Benfold Was Stalled in the South China Sea for Four Days After Engineering Casualty — 5 sources, grade ATaiwan proposes record defense spending for 2027 — 4 sources, grade BChinese Warships, Bombers Surge to Scarborough Shoal for Drills — 4 sources, grade AChina-friendly KMT stunts Taiwan’s attempt to grow into a fully formed hedgehog — 4 sources, grade AIndia’s competitive coexistence with China — 4 sources, grade BTaiwan's July export orders up amid continued AI demand — 3 sources, grade BAid shortages and fears of starvation as Indonesia reels from deadly earthquake — 3 sources, grade BFounder of collapsed Chinese property giant Evergrande sentenced to life in prison — 3 sources, grade BMovie that went viral for terrible animation becomes China box office hit — 3 sources, grade BTaiwan’s Tanks — 3 sources, grade AJapan Ministry of Defense - mod.go.jp — 2 sources, grade AHow US military funding propelled China’s robot dogs — 2 sources, grade BXinhua News | China honors Shenzhou-21 mission astronauts with medals - Xinhua — 2 sources, grade DChina risk returns in American bond markets — 2 sources, grade BSatellite launch vehicle self-destructs after test anomaly: NCSIST — 2 sources, grade BYulin (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)

7

PLAN vessels

6

coast guard

20

aircraft

2026-08-197 ships · 6 CCG · 20 air
2026-08-188 ships · 7 CCG · 5 air
2026-08-179 ships · 7 CCG · 0 air
2026-08-168 ships · 2 CCG · 11 air · median crossed
2026-08-158 ships · 1 CCG · 4 air · median crossed
2026-08-1412 ships · 2 CCG · 9 air · median crossed

Positional fixes: AIS quiet · 8 military aircraft tracked · no active firing zones.

Reported movements & sightings (graded)

C

Is South China Sea warship breakdown a sign US is ‘taxing reserve capacity’? — South China Morning Post

C

Chinese coastguard proposes turning South China Sea isles into robotic fortress — South China Morning Post

C

Wang Yi heads to Seoul as Trump cuts South Korea drills, opening door for China — South China Morning Post

B

Blue Ops and Havoc Partner to Develop Open-Architecture Autonomous Maritime Defense Systems — Naval News

C

Taiwan launches first live-fire exercise with first-person view drones — South China Morning Post

C

PLA troops sent gold, New Taiwan and US dollars in ‘wartime financial support’ drill — South China Morning Post

C

Chinese President Xi Jinping leads party elite in final farewell for ex-premier Zhu Rongji — South China Morning Post

C

Chinese navy’s combat software guru Zhao Xiaozhe disappears from academy website — South China Morning Post

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 2026-08-18 · SAR 2026-08-17Jiangnan / Changxing, Shanghaioptical 2026-08-17 · SAR 2026-08-10Qingdao (Jiaozhou Bay)optical 2026-08-18 · SAR 2026-08-16Yulin (Yalong Bay), Hainanoptical 2026-08-19 · SAR 2026-08-15Zhanjiang, Guangdongoptical 2026-08-19 · SAR 2026-08-16Zhoushan / Ningbooptical 2026-08-17 · SAR 2026-08-10

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 →