The US Coast Guard said China’s new reporting requirements for foreign vessels in the South China Sea could trigger “instability and potential conflict” in the region.
US Coast Guard Admiral Michael McAllister said Beijing’s new regulation requiring foreign vessels to report their innocent passage through the South China Sea seems to run directly counter to established international agreements and norms.
“If our reading is correct, these are very concerning, and that’s because they begin to build foundations for instability and potential conflicts if those are enforced,” McAllister said during the Asia-Pacific Media Hub virtual forum over the weekend.
Beijing last week announced that they will require a range of vessels “to report their information” when passing through what China claims as its territorial waters, beginning Sept. 1.
“Vessels from foreign countries, including submersibles, nuclear vessels, entering Chinese territorial sea shall be required to report info such as their name, current position and next port of call to China’s maritime administration starting Sept. 1,” China said.
Beijing’s Maritime Safety Administration has been mandated to deal with any vessel that fails to report as required “according to relevant laws, regulations, rules and provision.”
More than $5 trillion worth of trade passes through the South China Sea.
In July 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of the Philippine petition invalidating China’s expansive nine-dash line claim in the South China Sea and upheld the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.
With China’s implementation of this new regulation in the South China Sea, McAllister said the United States is working with its partners across the region to support key partners that are growing increasingly concerned over what he described as China’s “aggressive and sometimes coercive actions.”
The US Coast Guard official was referring to its regional partners like the Philippines that currently lack the capability or capacity to adequately respond to China’s actions.
“As you all know, the South China Sea is really a maritime superhighway, and coast guard-to-coast guard cooperation really is critical in that region for building good maritime governance. And as I had mentioned in my opening, we’re definitely seeing increased interest in partnering with the United States Coast Guard on maritime safety and security capacity development,” McAllister told international journalists during the virtual forum.
The US Coast Guard cutter Munro also conducted last week a joint maritime exercise with the Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in the South China Sea. The bilateral operations with Philippine forces involved four vessels and a helicopter and the USCG’s Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Scan Eagle.
The recent exercises included search-and-rescue, fisheries enforcement, and maritime domain awareness, which is meant to identify activities going on in the country’s sovereign waters and to be able to respond to any threats.
“One thing that we are working with the Philippines on in particular is giving them the capacity and the capability to spend more time beyond their littorals, and by that, I mean further from shore,” he said.
The Pentagon conveyed last week that it is likely to ignore the demand of China for all foreign ships entering the South China Sea to register with Chinese maritime authorities for access, describing it as a “serious threat” to freedom of navigation and trade.
“The United States remains firm that any coastal state law or regulation must not infringe upon navigation and overflight rights enjoyed by all nations under international law,” Pentagon spokesman John Supple said, reacting to a question about China’s decree.
“Unlawful and sweeping maritime claims, including in the South China Sea, pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas, including the freedoms of navigation and overflight, free trade and unimpeded lawful commerce, and the rights and interests of South China Sea and other littoral nations,” Supple added.
The statement came after Beijing announced that foreign vessels entering Chinese territorial waters would have to report their ship and cargo information to China’s maritime authorities.
The new regulation is supposed to be applicable to the South China Sea, the East China Sea, and the various islands and reefs dotted across the water that Beijing claims as its inalienable territory, including its nine-dash-line claims in the South China Sea.
Beijing’s overreaching claims in the South China Sea have become a source of growing tension between Beijing and neighboring Southeast Asian nations – the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) urged local government units (LGUs) to improve their management of municipal waters and assured them of its support in protecting municipal waters and local aquatic resources in the WPS, particularly in strengthening law enforcement against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.
DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año said based on the results of the Department’s Fisheries Compliance Audit (FishCA), which monitors the LGUs’ enforcement of and compliance with Republic Act 8550 or the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998, LGUs need to continuously improve their management of municipal waters.
He said for instance, some of the DILG’s partner non-government organizations (NGOs) have reported a high incidence of possible encroachments of commercial fishing vessels in municipal waters.
He said since LGUs are “at the forefront of ensuring food security, especially during the time of the pandemic,” the department is committed to capacitate coastal LGUs for transparent and participatory management of municipal waters, in compliance with national fisheries laws.
The Philippine Navy (PN), meanwhile, said the acquisition of eight units of fast attack interdiction craft-missile (FAIC-M) will complement its 12 multipurpose attack craft (MPAC) previously acquired to secure the country’s coastal waters and maritime territories.
“This acquisition aims to strengthen the country’s naval capability in terms of enhancing littoral defense and maritime interdiction operations as it will complement the previously acquired 12 MPAC of the PN,” Navy spokesperson Commander Benjo Negranza said.
Three of the MPACs are armed with the Rafael Advanced Defense Ltd.
Spike-ER (extended range) surface-to-surface missile system while three more are scheduled to be installed with the same weapon system.
Negranza said the acquisition of eight units of FAIC-M is among the 2019 projects approved by President Rodrigo Duterte under the Horizon 2 List of the Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program.
“The first two units of the FAIC-M (are) estimated to arrive in-country around the last quarter of 2022,” he said.
He also said the FAIC-M project was awarded to Israel Shipyards Ltd. and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems of Israel under a government-to-government procurement scheme and is divided into two lots.