China has passed a controversial law that gives coastguards more freedom to fire on foreign ships, a move that could fuel the risk of a military miscalculation in the Western Pacific.
The law aims to “protect 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.
China’s Coast Guard would be allowed to take “all necessary means”, including the use of weapons, to stop or prevent threats from foreign ships, according to the text published by Xinhua. Coast guard personnel will be allowed to board and inspect foreign ships operating in China’s “jurisdictional waters”, a term that covers areas claimed by other countries.
The move could increase the risk of error in large areas of disputed waters off China’s coast. Chinese coastguards often come into close contact – sometimes engaging in tense stops – with foreign ships, as they assert Beijing’s claims to many seas in South and East China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a regular briefing in Beijing on Friday that the move was a “normal legislative activity of the NPC” and that China “will remain committed to maintaining peace and stability at sea.”
Claims for the rich waters of the South China Sea have put China in conflict with its Southeast Asian neighbors, including Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. In the East China Sea, Chinese and Japanese government ships typically crowd on patrols near the uninhabited islands claimed by both sides.
Earlier this week, Japanese diplomats, in a conference call with Chinese counterparts, voiced strong opposition to repeated raids by the country’s vessels near the Senkaku Islands disputes, known as Diaoyus in China. Chinese delegates called on the two sides to work to make the area a “sea of peace, cooperation and friendship,” the Beijing Foreign Ministry said.
The law is China’s latest step to empower its coastguard, which was created in 2013 by merging several maritime agencies and incorporated into the People’s Armed Police in 2018. The fleet has increased its presence in recently disputed waters, including a confrontation with Vietnam in the Vanguard Bank of the South China Sea in 2019.
The move could also lead other nations to strengthen their military presence in the waters, including then-US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said last year that the US Coast Guard is looking to expand its presence in the Pacific.
– With the assistance of John Liu, Jing Li and Colum Murphy