When a superpower launches a „special maritime operation," it's worth paying attention to the adjective - because „special" usually means someone wants to do something big and call it small. China announced exactly such an operation east of Taiwan on Saturday, through its Ministry of Transport, with maritime agencies engaged from the Fujian and Guangdong provinces and forces from the East China Sea.

The official aim, Beijing says, is to enforce „maritime administrative jurisdiction" and to protect national interests. Translated from diplomatic into human language: China is sending the message that it considers the waters around Taiwan its own, and that anyone who thinks otherwise will have to take that into account.

The trigger isn't random. The operation comes as a response to the recent deal between Japan and the Philippines to negotiate maritime borders in the region and deepen defense cooperation. According to the Chinese state agency, those talks „seriously undermined China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights." Both countries had previously stated they would likely respond to any Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Taiwan's Defense Ministry had no comment when the news broke - a silence that in such situations speaks as much as a statement. And while the world counts the ships in the Pacific, the Balkans see a familiar pattern: a great power drawing borders on someone else's sea and calling them its own. The question isn't whether this will escalate - it's how long „special operations" stay only on paper.