A new regulation allowing China’s coast guard to detain for up to 60 days any foreigners suspected of “trespassing” in waters it claims took effect on Saturday, raising concerns in countries such as the Philippines that have sovereignty disputes with it.
The new development is feared to further escalate tensions in the South China Sea, where Chinese and Philippine vessels frequently confront each other. The Chinese coast guard has fired water cannons at Philippine ships.
China claims virtually all of the South China Sea, a vital shipping route and an area of rich fishing grounds. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have competing claims in the sea.
An international tribunal, ruling in a case brought by Manila in 2016, said China’s claims have no basis in historical fact. Beijing has ignored the rule and has even established military bases on some islets in the region.
Beijing also claims the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, calling them Diaoyu, and regularly sends its ships near the islets.
The updated regulation, first announced last month, outlines procedures for Chinese authorities to crack down on illegal maritime activities. It is aimed at thoroughly enforcing rules that took effect in 2021 to allow the coast guard to use weapons against foreign ships deemed to have illegally entered Chinese waters.
Earlier this month, coast guard authorities of the Philippines, Japan and the United States discussed ways to deal with the matter when they met in Singapore on the sidelines of the Asia Security Summit.
The chief of the Philippine Armed Forces has urged Filipino fishermen to keep fishing in the country’s exclusive economic zone, despite China’s new rules.
“We have the right to exploit the resources in the area so our fishermen have no reason to be afraid,” Romeo Brawner told reporters on Friday.
The Taiwanese coastguard said in a statement that it would “strengthen fishing protection tasks, resolutely defend 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”.
In a related development, the Philippines asserted its exclusive rights to South China Sea resources off its western coast with an official filing before a United Nations commission.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said the country submitted information to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, registering entitlement to an extended continental shelf in the Western Palawan region in the disputed sea.