This is an exceptionally serious challenge – an arrogant attempt by China to single-handed re-write long standing maritime law:
China’s Defense Ministry has demanded that the U.S. Navy end surveillance missions off the country’s southern coast following a weekend confrontation between an American vessel and Chinese ships.
In its first public comment on the Sunday episode, the ministry repeated earlier statements from the Foreign Ministry that the unarmed U.S. ship was operating illegally insi de China’s exclusive economic zone when it was challenged by three Chinese government ships and two Chinese-flagged trawlers.
“The Chinese side’s carrying out of routine enforcement and safeguarding measures within its exclusive economic zone was entirely appropriate and legal,” ministry spokesman Huang Xueping said in a statement faxed overnight to reporters.
“We demand the United States respect our legal interests and security concerns, and take effective measures to prevent a recurrence of such incidents,” Huang said…
…The U.S. says that Navy mapping ship USNS Impeccable was operating legally when it was harassed by Chinese boats in international waters about 75 miles (120 kilometers) off China’s southern island province of Hainan.
The “exclusive economic zone” is a term from the UN’s “Law of the Sea Treaty” which holds that a nation has exclusive right to economic exploitation for 200 nautical miles from its coastline – so, under the treaty, our ship was inside China’s “exclusive economic zone” (EEZ), but the EEZ does not in any way give a nation the right to halt passage of ships on otherwise legal business. Had we attempted to put an oil rig there, China would have had a case, but what it is trying to do is say that the EEZ means we can’t even send a ship through waters 200 miles of China’s coast without Chinese permission. This is absurd – and as we have yet to ratify the treaty, doubly absurd.
Furthermore, as the ship was 75 miles south of Hainan, a large island off China’s south coast, it could easily have been within 200 nautical miles of Vietnam…showing that there is much to dispute about not just what the EEZ covers, but who owns what part of the EEZ’s of neighboring coastal States. What China is doing is attempting to intimidate the United States (as well as Japan and all other nations with maritime interests along China’s coast) into essentially allowing China to conquer the South China Sea (which appears to have very large oil reserves) without firing a shot. This would be as absurd as the United States staking a claim to the whole of the Gulf of Mexico.
We cannot allow this to stand – while we don’t want to needlessly provoke the Chinese, we should start the regular passage of US warships within 50 miles of the Chinese coast in order to re-emphasize the fact of freedom of the seas, a doctrine the United States has fought for in many wars. It might seem like an arcane thing, but such an overturn of maritime law by China invites complete chaos on the seas and the prospect of nations like Turkey, Spain, Cuba, Malaysia and others starting to charge tolls for ships to pass through their coastal waters.
It is the US Navy, in succession to the British Royal Navy, which ensures that all vessels on lawful voyages are able to freely use the world’s sea lanes. This includes Chinese ships, which are protected by American naval might as they go about their business upon the seas. This impertinence by China must be knocked down swiftly – I only hope that someone in the Obama Administration realizes what is at stake.
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