China passed a controversial law that gives the Coast Guard more freedom to fire at foreign ships, a move that could fuel the risk of a military miscalculation in the western Pacific.
The law aims to “safeguard national sovereignty, security and maritime rights,” the official Xinhua news agency said in a report early Saturday. The law will come into force on February 1.
According to the text published by Xinhua, the Chinese Coast Guard would be allowed to take “all necessary means”, including the use of weapons, to stop or prevent threats from foreign ships. Coast Guard personnel will be allowed to board and inspect foreign vessels operating in China’s “jurisdictional waters,” a term that covers areas claimed by other countries.
The measure could increase the risk of miscalculation in the vast areas of disputed waters that stretch from the Chinese coast. Chinese Coast Guard ships often come into close contact, sometimes with tense clashes, with foreign ships, as they claim Beijing’s claims to much of China’s southern and eastern seas.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing in Beijing on Friday that the measure was a “normal legislative activity of the NPC” and that China “will remain committed to maintaining peace and security.” ‘stability at sea’.
Claims in South China’s resource-rich sea waters have put China in conflict with Southeast Asia’s neighbors, including Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. In the East China Sea, Chinese and Japanese government ships routinely sneak into patrols near uninhabited islands claimed by both sides.
Earlier this week, Japanese diplomats at a conference call with Chinese counterparts expressed strong opposition to repeated raids by the country’s ships near the disputed Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyus in China. Chinese delegates urged both sides to work to turn the area into a “sea of peace, cooperation and friendship,” Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said.
The law is China’s latest step to empower its Coast Guard, which was created in 2013 through the merger of several maritime agencies and incorporated into the People’s Armed Police in 2018. The fleet has recently increased its presence in waters in dispute, including a clash with Vietnam at the Vanguard Bank of the South China Sea in 2019.
The move could also push other nations to bolster their military presence in the waters, including U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said last year that the U.S. Coast Guard was looking to expand its presence. in the Pacific.
– With the assistance of John Liu, Jing Li and Colum Murphy