A Chinese coast guard threat to detain “trespassing” foreign fishermen and sailors in the South China Sea for up to 60 days without trial beginning June 15, 2024, is based on a flawed 2021 law imposed unilaterally by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The deficient decree, in turn, relies on Beijing’s vague and baseless claim to most of the South China Sea, including territory within other nations’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ). It defies an international tribunal’s 2016 determination that the assertion has no legal basis.
The CCP’s May 15 announcement of the detention order — Regulation No. 3 —exacerbated tensions over sovereignty in the South China Sea, where Brunei, Malaysia, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have overlapping maritime claims. The CCP’s rhetoric and increasingly assertive actions in the region have been widely condemned.
The regulation authorizes Chinese coast guard commanders to detain foreign vessels and people in waters that the CCP maintains are within its jurisdiction, Radio Free Asia reported. People can be held if they are suspected of entering or leaving CCP-claimed territory, helping others “illegally enter and exit” the areas or endangering national security, the order states.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose nation initiated the legal action that resulted in the 2016 ruling, called the order “worrisome” and an escalation of maritime standoffs between Manila and Beijing. He called on the PRC to halt its aggressive actions so “we can all go about our business in a peaceful way,” Reuters reported.
The Philippine Coast Guard has criticized the Chinese coast guard’s confrontational actions in the part of the sea that Filipinos call the West Philippine Sea. In recent months, the Chinese coast guard has rammed, blocked and fired water cannons at resupply vessels headed to a Philippine military outpost — a grounded World War II-era ship — on Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. The confrontations have injured Philippine Sailors and damaged their vessels.
The PRC coast guard also has monitored Japanese vessels on routine patrols around the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
After the detention order was announced, the Philippine Coast Guard promised an increased presence in the region and sought enhanced deployment of Japanese and United States coast guard vessels, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported. Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Ronnie Gil Gavan met with Japan Coast Guard Vice Adm. Yoshio Seguchi and U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan on the sidelines of the recent Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, according to the newspaper.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa told reporters that Tokyo is monitoring the PRC’s movements, including the detention order, “with high concern” and would “closely follow relevant developments to ensure that the enforcement of the regulations does not infringe upon the legitimate interests of the countries concerned, including Japan.”
Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry vowed to uphold the nation’s sovereignty and protect its citizens’ rights, responding to the CCP’s trespassing order in the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea, Viet Nam News reported.
The Philippine military, meanwhile, will protect fishermen within Manila’s EEZ during an annual four-month fishing ban the CCP illegally imposed on much of the South China Sea.
The Chinese coast guard announced Regulation No. 3 while Philippine civilians conducted a maritime resupply mission to Philippine fishermen near Second Thomas and Scarborough shoals in the West Philippine Sea. Based in Luzon, the Atin Ito Coalition declared its mission “a major victory,” the government’s Philippine News Agency reported.
