[13][14] Gaodeng is located 9.25 kilometres (5.75 mi) away from the Beijiao Peninsula (北茭半岛) in Lianjiang County, Fuzhou, Fujian, China (PRC).

[10] On February 13, 1951, under cover of fog, eight Chinese Communist motorized junks and more than twenty wooden ships surrounded and attacked the island.

[19] On March 4, 1955 during the First Taiwan Strait Crisis, an assault on Kaoteng Island (Gaodeng) by forty Communist motorized junks was driven off.

[18][3][20] On the three days of October 7, 11 and 14, 1955, a total of 49 rounds were fired at Kaoteng (Gaodeng) in Chinese Communist shelling of the island.

[18] In September/October 1975, frogmen ('water goblins') from mainland China landed on the island twice and left threatening messages in graffiti.

[19] On December 26, 2000, a Chinese fishing boat was spotted 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from Kaoteng Island (Gaodeng).

[23][24] In March 2023, Taiwan Customs levied NT$98.61 million (approximately US$3.2 million) in fines on ship owners and crew found smuggling 58,706 kilograms of live Australian rock lobsters in 33 shipments from Australia to China between September and November 2022 via vessels which would reportedly sail to waters off Gaodeng Island and make transactions with Chinese fishing boats at sea.