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Chinese seagoing ship – Photo: AP
On January 22, Chinese President Xi Jinping signed an order to enact the Customs Law that allows the country’s maritime police to use weapons to attack foreign ships, after the bill was approved at the 25th conference of Standing Committee of the Chinese National Assembly.
China’s new maritime law specifies the right to exercise all necessary maritime measures, including the use of force, to prevent conduct that Beijing considers invading the waters it controls.
This law also defines that the waters administered by China include sovereign, sovereign and jurisdictional waters.
As such, in accordance with this law, China’s maritime customs will be used by force against foreign ships in the territorial sea, the contiguous zone and the exclusive economic zone of China. In which, the most worrying thing is the use of force in the territorial sea.
For the United States, the right of a warship to be harmless in the territorial sea is one of the important constituent elements of the “freedom of the sea” principle that the United States always emphasizes and protects.
China does not recognize the right of a warship to navigate harmlessly within its territorial sea. Article 6 of the China Territorial Sea and Adjacent Sea Law 1992 requires that warships entering the Chinese territorial sea obtain the Chinese permit.
This is one of the main disagreements between Washington and Beijing in the South China Sea. This also helps to explain why China has always condemned “free shipping” activities. (FONOP) of America around the entities that China claims in the archipelago Hoang Sa and Truong Sa.
America will continue to operate FONOP in the South China Sea. And after the introduction of the new Customs Law, Chinese customs made the right to use force against American ships when traveling despite Chinese objections in the waters surrounding the realities. It may be in the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa under the sovereignty of Vietnam.
This is likely to lead to a serious confrontation between the military forces of the two sides, testing the situation of the South China Sea as the focal point of a conflict at sea.
Beijing originally did not use laws, it is now too!
Obviously, this is a test for the United States and other countries. I suppose China’s action has been underway for a long time, especially as Beijing understands how powerful its maritime police force is, given its intention to enforce its sovereignty claims while keeping the situation below the threshold of war. China is acting provocatively because it has calculated that it will not take much responsibility.
Recently enacted Chinese law also allows the use of force to expel other countries from the entities claimed by Beijing. This will affect Vietnam immediately.
Legally, China’s Customs Law has lowered the threshold for the use of deadly force, so it is certainly capable of generating more violence. But the rest understand the nature of China that is not interested in the rule of law. They have done it before and now they will repeat it in different ways. Southeast Asia will be concerned and outraged.
Dr. Zachary Abuza (Professor at the American National War Academy) – JAPAN SIGN write the
