Taiwan‘s New Power Think Tank held a seminar on “The Impact of China’s Maritime Police Law on Regional Security” on Friday, March 12 (Photo by Yung-Tai Chang, Voice of America)
China recently passed a maritime police law that Taiwan military experts say has become a tool for gray conflict with other countries, and scholars say the law will help China respond to its own Indo-Pacific strategy.
Su Ziyun, director of the Institute for Defense Strategy and Resources at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Studies, said the maritime police law passed by China has become a tool for gray conflict with other countries.
He said, “The basic professionally trained armed personnel, under the mission needs and humane considerations, he has to pinpoint the use of weapons to stop the other side in one or two seconds, but the minimum kill, the Chinese Communist Party‘s maritime police law does not have these principles at all.”
Su Ziyun also said that some of the past behavior of the Chinese Communist Party’s marine police is considered a “white threat”, its white official ships in the execution of duty, often using tactical actions that exceed the mission requirements, including Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia and other countries’ ships have been subject to this type of maritime bullying.
The Taiwan New Power Think Tank, established by former DPP legislator Chen Shenghong, held a symposium on Friday, March 12, titled “The Impact of China’s Maritime Police Law on Regional Security” and invited experts and scholars to express their views.
China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the Maritime Police Law on January 22 and it took effect on February 1. According to this law, China’s rights in the sea by “foreign organizations and individuals of unlawful infringement or imminent danger,” the Chinese marine police have the right to use weapons.
The meeting was attended by Democratic Progressive Party legislator Luo Meiling, who pointed out that this maritime police law is tantamount to giving the maritime police the status of a second navy, as China’s unilateral identification of the sea area and many countries have a lot of overlap, this move will cause a lot of pressure on these countries, and may lead to military conflicts.
Strict enforcement triggers war
The Taipei branch director of the Sankei Shimbun, Akio Yaban, even pointed out that if Chinese law enforcement officials strictly enforce the maritime police law, it will definitely lead to war, which is a very dangerous law.
He said: “They are stipulated in the Chinese jurisdiction of the sea, considered dangerous, can be excluded by force, but, for example, many places in the South China Sea, the United States from the Obama regime until now has been enforced freedom of navigation, those U.S. warships, according to their (Chinese) law are in violation of the maritime police law, can be expelled by force, then the other side is also armed forces.”
Yaban Akio also pointed out that China’s maritime police law has two major problems, the first is called the maritime police, but led by the National Military Commission, equipped with weapons specifications far more than other countries maritime police, the second is in the implementation of the possibility of serious violations of the international Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which The Japanese government has considered resorting to international courts to resolve the relevant doubts.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Feb. 8 that he could not accept the maritime police law passed by China and believed that it had increased tensions in the East China Sea and South China Sea.
Responding to its own Indo-Pacific strategy
Taiwan Center for Security Studies Contributing Researcher Xu Junbin said that the Indo-Pacific region will become a hot spot in international politics in the next five to 10 years, and that China’s introduction of the maritime police law is mainly in response to its own Indo-Pacific strategy.
He said: “If we think of military power as hard power, think of the maritime police as soft power, China can have two sets of cross response means, so in this regard should be, China’s future in dealing with these related matters have two sets of practices, will say to everyone, I go out to the maritime police, to deal with conflicts at sea, disputes, not to solve these problems with military power. “
Xu Junbin also talked about, in the face of China’s maritime police law, the Republic of China government’s way to respond to include, change the code of conduct for marine patrol units, clear handling of disputes caused by the median line of the sea, as well as amend the relevant laws.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on March 7 that China’s maritime police law is only a routine domestic legislation that does not target specific countries and is in full compliance with national law and international practice. He also stressed that it is the consistent position of the Chinese government to deal with maritime disputes through friendly consultations and not to use force or threaten to use force, which is also a long-standing consensus between China and its neighboring countries.
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