On Sunday, a US carrier strike group led by the USS Theodore Rooseveltentered the South China Sea for “routine operations.” Earlier, Japan issueda rebuke of China’s claims in the strategic body of water. The Pentagonreciprocated by promising to protect the Senkakus – the East China Seaislands controlled by Tokyo but also claimed by Beijing.
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee – China’s top legislativebody, has given the Coast Guard link theauthority to use “any means necessary,” including firing on foreign ships,to protect areas where China claims jurisdiction, the South China MorningPost has reported, citing the text of the document.
The legislation, passed Friday, also reportedly allows Coast Guardlink forces to launch pre-emptiveattacks on foreign ships without prior warning if commanders deem such astep to be necessary, and includes a provision under which Coast Guardlink personnel can board and inspectforeign vessels. It also allows Coast Guardlink forces to destroy structuresbelonging to other countries built in areas claimed by China.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that the law is inline with international practices, adding that Beijing “will remaincommitted to upholding peace and stability in the sea.”
Beijing claims control of wide swathes of the South China Sea – a strategicmaritime area that serves as a key passage for international shipping andis a major source of untapped fishing and hydrocarbon resources. Parts ofthe body of water are also claimed by Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, thePhilippines and Taiwan. The US, which is not a claimant in the dispute,began carrying out “freedom of navigation” missions in the region in theearly 2010s, after then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton branded the bodyof water a “matter of US national interest.” Beijing has repeatedlycriticised US “meddling” in the region, and demanded that the region’snations be allowed to sort out the dispute independently.
In this undated photo released by Xinhua News Agency, a Chinese H-6K bomberpatrols the islands and reefs in the South China Sea.
China’s Coast Guard link and shipsfrom the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) have already been involved inmultiple incidents with foreign vessels in the South China Sea, includingthe alleged ramming and sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat last April,and instances in which Chinese ships have chased US vessels out of thearea. With some countries, the conflict has spanned decades, with Beijingand Hanoi fighting a major skirmish in the Spratly Islands which killed 64Vietnamese troops and injured one Chinese soldier in 1988.
China’s Coast Guard link came intoexistence in 2013, and became a branch of the military in 2018. Its shipsare mostly lightly armed, usually carrying twin 14.5 mm machine guns astheir primary armament. The Coast Guardlink fleet does include moreheavily-armed ships, however, including at least one cutter known as theCCG 3901, which sports a pair of 76 mm rapid-fire naval guns.
The law’s passage comes amid a major escalation of tensions between Chinaon one side and the US and its Taiwanese and Japanese allies on the otherjust days into Joe Biden’s term as president. Earlier this week, Japan’spermanent mission to the UN issued a rare diplomatic note dismissingChina’s claims to part of the South China Sea and suggesting they were notin accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which bothcountries are parties.
On Saturday, the Taiwanese military reported that Chinese bombers,fighters and an anti-submarine warfare turboprop aircraft had breached itsair defence identification zone south of the island, with some 380 similar”incursions” reported in 2020. China does not recognise the legitimacy ofTaiwan’s air defence identification zone, and considers the island nationitself a wayward province that should one day be reunited with themainland.
Also Saturday, newly appointed US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin spoketo Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi by telephone and promised that theUS would help Tokyo defend the Senkaku Islands, an archipelago ofuninhabited islets and rocks situated in the East China Sea betweenmainland China and Japan’s Ryukyu Islands. China calls the archipelago theDiaoyu Islands, and began demanding that they be returned to the PRC in the1970s, pointing out that they had been seized by Japan during a war withthe Qing Dynasty in 1895. Tokyo claims Beijing’s claim is connected to thefact that the archipelago may be rich with hydrocarbon resources.
On Sunday, US Indo-Pacific Command announced that a Navy carrier strikegroup led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt had entered the South China Sea aday earlier “to conduct routine operations,” including missions “to ensurefreedom of the seas,” building security partnerships and the “foster[ing]of maritime security.”