Following growing alarm from its neighbors in the region, China on Monday, February 1, defended a new law that allows its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels, branding it as a “normal domestic” measure that did not take aim at any particular country. 

In a statement on Monday, the Chinese embassy in the Philippines had also accused parties in the country of “misinterpreting” the controversial coast guard law for “their own political interests or out of prejudice toward China.”

“The formulation of the Coast Guard Law is a normal domestic legislative activity of China…. The China Coast Guard Law doesn’t specifically target any certain country. The (enactment) of the law doesn’t indicate any change of China’s maritime policy,” it said. 

The embassy’s statements comes days after Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr said the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest against the law, which could be taken as a “verbal threat of war” against countries that did not abide by it. 

Locsin said that while enacting a law was part of country’s sovereign rights, Manila opposed it because it involved the South China Sea, which Beijing continued to insist ownership over despite a 2016 arbitral award that the Philippines won over China invalidating its sweeping claims. 

The Philippines is among several claimant states in the South China Sea dispute, along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei. Tensions among claimant states, maritime powers like the Untied States, and China have increased over the years in one of the most vital waterways in the world. 

Between the lines

The Chinese embassy on Monday had also echoed statements earlier made by Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, who addressed concerns on the law, arguing that it was in line with international practices. 

China said its cost guard law was not unique to the country, citing other states, including the Philippines, had enacted similar versions of the law that allowed its coast guards more leeway to carry out activities as part of law enforcement. 

“None of these laws have been seen as a threat of war,” it said. 

South China Sea analysts said while the law may be consistent with international norms, questions over how China will implement it was a main point of concern, considering its aggressive behavior in disputed waters it continued to claim as its own. 

Retired Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio, one of the legal minds behind the Philippines’ victory against China at the Hague, said Beijing’s domestic law “clearly violates” not just the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) but the UN Charter itself. 

“It’s a challenge to the legal order because the international legal order says you cannot do this because this was the state of affairs before World War II…. You cannot go to war and acquire maritime areas by force and China has flipped this over,” he said. 

China is already known to deploy its coast guard in disputed waters as a way to assert its sweeping claims in areas like the South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea. Chinese coast guard personnel have also been known to unlawfully block and confiscate devices of Filipino fishermen accessing Scarborough Shoal, a common fishing ground as declared by the 2016 Hague ruling.

Meanwhile, China also hit reports in Philippine media that shared news of its coast guard personnel preventing Filipino fishermen from accessing Scarborough Shoal and a Chinese research vessel located off of Philippine waters without proper authority from local officials. 

“Everyone is entitled freedom of speech. However, malicious hype-up and irresponsible and baseless accusations that run counter to common sense, are not acceptable and should not be appeased in a society that believes in rule of law and international norms as well as mutual respect,” it said. – Rappler.com