WWIII
New China rules allow detention of foreigners in South China Sea

Jing Xuan TENG
Sat, June 15, 2024 

A China Coast Guard ship maneuvers past a Philippine fishing boat in the disputed South China Sea (Ted ALJIBE)


New Chinese coast guard rules took effect Saturday, under which it can detain foreigners for trespassing in the disputed South China Sea, where neighbours and the G7 have accused Beijing of intimidation and coercion.

Beijing claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, brushing aside competing claims from several Southeast Asian nations including the Philippines and an international ruling that its stance has no legal basis.

China deploys coast guard and other boats to patrol the waters and has turned several reefs into militarised artificial islands. Chinese and Philippine vessels have had a series of confrontations in disputed areas.


From Saturday, China's coast guard can detain foreigners "suspected of violating management of border entry and exit", according to the new regulations published online.

Detention is allowed up to 60 days in "complicated cases", they say.

"Foreign ships that have illegally entered China's territorial waters and the adjacent waters may be detained."

Manila has accused the Chinese coast guard of "barbaric and inhumane behaviour" against Philippine vessels, and President Ferdinand Marcos last month called the new rules a "very worrisome" escalation.

China Coast Guard vessels have used water cannon against Philippine boats multiple times in the contested waters.

There have also been collisions that injured Filipino troops.

Philippine military chief General Romeo Brawner told reporters on Friday that authorities in Manila were "discussing a number of steps to be undertaken in order for us to protect our fishermen".

Philippine fishermen were told "not to be afraid, but just to go ahead with their normal activities to fish there in our Exclusive Economic Zone", Brawner said.

The Group of Seven bloc on Friday criticised what it called "dangerous" incursions by China in the waterway.

"We oppose China's militarisation, and coercive and intimidation activities in the South China Sea," read a G7 statement at the end of a summit on Friday.

- G7 criticism -

The South China Sea is a vital waterway, where Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also have overlapping claims in some parts.

Most recently, however, confrontations between China and the Philippines have raised fears of a wider conflict over the sea that could involve the United States and other allies.

Trillions of dollars in ship-borne trade passes through the South China Sea annually, and huge unexploited oil and gas deposits are believed to lie under its seabed, though estimates vary greatly.

The sea is also important as a source of fish for growing populations.

China has defended its new coast guard rules. A foreign ministry spokesman said last month that they were intended to "better uphold order at sea".

And the Chinese defence minister warned this month that there were "limits" to Beijing's restraint in the South China Sea.

China has also been angered in the past by US and other Western warships sailing through the South China Sea.

The US Navy and others undertake such voyages to assert the freedom of navigation in international waters, but Beijing considers them violations of its sovereignty.

Chinese and US forces have had a series of close encounters in the South China Sea.


Philippine military chief urges fishermen to ignore China's new coastguard rules

Reuters
Updated Fri, June 14, 2024 


FILE PHOTO: Members of the media take footage of a Chinese Coast Guard vessel blocking a Philippine Coast Guard vessel on its way to a resupply mission at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea


MANILA (Reuters) -The Philippine military chief urged Filipino fishermen to keep fishing in the country's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, despite China's new coastguard rules allowing it to detain trespassers without trial, which take effect on June 15.

China, which claims almost all of the South China Sea including parts claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, has issued new rules that would enforce a 2021 law allowing its coastguard to use lethal force against foreign ships in waters that it claims.

"That's our message to our fishermen, for them not to be afraid but to just go ahead with their normal activities in our exclusive economic zone," Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief Romeo Brawner told reporters on Friday.

"We have the right to exploit the resources in the area so our fishermen have no reason to be afraid," he added.

The new rules, which allows China's coastguard to detain suspected trespassers without trial for 60 days, have sparked international concerns, with the Philippines describing them as "worrisome" and a "provocation".

Taiwan's coastguard said in a statement "it will strengthen fishing protection tasks, resolutely defends the safety of our fishermen's operations and ensure the rights and interests of shipping, and defend national sovereignty”.

It also called on China "not to use this reason to justify unilateral acts that undermine regional peace".

The United States, which has a mutual defence treaty with the Philippines and is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, said Chinese domestic law "has no applicability to other states’ flagged vessels in other states’ exclusive economic zones or in the high seas, according to the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention.

"Enforcement would be highly escalatory and detrimental to regional peace and security," a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department added. "We’ve urged Beijing – and all claimants – to comport their maritime claims with international law as reflected in the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention."

China has stepped up military activities near democratically-governed Taiwan, which it views as its own territory. It is also involved in an increasingly bitter stand-off with the Philippines in the disputed South China Sea.

The Chinese foreign ministry has said previously the new rules were meant to protect the maritime order, and that there was no need to worry if there was no illegal behaviour by the individuals and bodies involved.

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Alex Richardson and Chizu Nomiyama)