Coast Guard | Center for International Maritime Security cimsec.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cimsec.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
China’s New Coast Guard Law and Implications for Maritime Security in the East and South China Seas
Introduction
The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress passed the China Coast Guard (CCG) Law (海警法) on Jan. 22, and the law is scheduled to take effect on Feb. 1. The new law hasn’t attracted tons of attention, but it violates the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The change builds on other shifts that have militarized China’s maritime law enforcement apparatus. In 2013, China created the CCG Bureau (中国海警局), which unites the previously separate maritime law enforcement agencies known as the Five Dragons: the China Marine Surveillance, the CCG, the China Maritime Patrol, China Fisheries Law Enforcement Command (中国渔政) and the General Administration of Customs. The CCG was reorganized further into the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force Coast Guard Corps (中国人民武装警察部队海警总队) in 2018 a
China’s Coast Guard Law: Destabilizing or Reassuring?
The new law represents an integral step toward clarifying and standardizing the operations of the China Coast Guard, but that hasn’t stopped regional unease.
By
January 29, 2021
Advertisement
China passed a law on January 22, which will come into force on February 1, that for the first time explicitly specifies the conditions under which the Chinese coast guard would be allowed to use weapons on foreign vessels. While concerns about the law’s potential to raise the risk of maritime incidents and escalation have considerable merit, it is equally noteworthy that this law, considered in the broader context of China’s protracted process of institutionalizing its maritime law enforcement force, represents an integral step toward clarifying and standardizing the operations of the China Coast Guard (CCG).
It is obviously an unwise choice for the Japanese government to take US officials’ remarks as an infallible guarantee as Washington clearly knows Beijing’s attitude about territorial issues. The Article 5 itself is ambiguous.
Early Warning Brief: Introducing the New, New China Coast Guard jamestown.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jamestown.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.