China's Coast Guard further militarizes by now using Type 054 hulls via China Defense Blog.

pics and story via China Defense Blog

China's Coast Guard getting their own Type054 based hull

And why not, since the Type054 is a proven design with 24 hulls already in service and an extensive record of overseas deployments by the PLAN. By sharing the common hull with the PLAN, the Coast Guard is applying the economy-of-scale of the per unit cost in addition to reductions in logistics support and maintenance costs.

The Coast Guard is also sharing the same hull with Type056 so this is not unprecedented.

I think CDB is seriously downplaying this development.  This is upping the ante for not only our Coast Guard but for Coast Guard forces in the region.  By adding warships to their force structure they're in essence doing a stealth Navy build up.  Additionally the peacekeeping roles of Coast Guards is being blurred if they're going to operate full on warships.

Many will say that I'm crying chicken little but this is one more piece of evidence that China is getting ready to cross swords.  I wish we were.