China Coast Guard regulations allowing it to detain foreign nationals suspected of trespassing in waters it claims for up to 60 days took effect Saturday, stoking fears of escalation amid rising tensions in the disputed South and East China seas.
The updated regulations, which were announced last month and expand on China’s 2021 coast guard law, detail procedural guidelines for cracking down on what it defines as illegal activities within “waters under China’s jurisdiction.”
It stipulates that foreign nationals suspected of violating Chinese immigration regulations or “jeopardizing national security interests or undermining public order” in the country’s claimed waters can be detained for 30 days, or up to 60 days in “complicated cases.”
The 2021 law, which allows the coast guard to use weapons against foreign ships deemed to have illegally entered Chinese-claimed waters, has stirred unease among rival claimants.
Under its so-called nine dash line, Beijing claims some 90% of the resource-rich South China Sea — through which trillions of dollars in trade flow every year — despite overlapping claims by Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines.
In recent months, China and the Philippines have faced off in the strategic waterway, with the Chinese side’s coast guard firing water cannons at Philippine boats and attempting to block resupply missions to one of Manila’s key military outposts in the waters.
The Philippines' military chief urged Filipino fishermen to keep fishing in the country's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, despite the new rules.
“We told them not to be afraid, but to just go ahead with their normal fishing activities in our exclusive economic zone,” local media quoted Philippine Armed Forces chief Gen. Romeo Brawner as saying Friday.
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, of which both Manila and Beijing are signatories, a country’s EEZ extends 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its coast, with the country retaining exclusive rights to the exploration and exploitation of natural resources in those waters.
The Chinese law has also stoked concern in Tokyo, which has said it will be closely monitoring events, especially near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Beijing also claims the uninhabited islands, which it calls the Diaoyu, and has sent government vessels near the islands for a record number of consecutive days this year.
The U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command has said the regulations have the “potential to escalate regional tensions, infringe on coastal state sovereign rights, and impede high-seas freedoms guaranteed to all nations,” making them a matter “of significant international concern.”
“The regulation’s ambiguous and broad language ... provide a veil of flexibility for the (China Coast Guard) to detain foreign vessels and persons engaged in lawful activities beyond the territorial sea of any state,” the command said in a recent report.
As one example, it said the regulations “could be used as pretext to enable the PRC to increase pressure on Japan in relation to the Senkaku Islands.”
Some observers say the new regulations are the latest example of China expanding its so-called gray zone coercive tactics to wear down its rival claimants without resorting to armed conflict.
But Yang Xiao, deputy director of the Institute of Maritime Strategy Studies at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told China’s state-run CGTN news channel in a report aired Friday that the moves were “a very common practice all over the world,” and blamed Manila, in particular, for stoking tensions in the South China Sea.
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