In a broadening campaign to enforce its territorial claims, China says it is beefing up its police powers in the disputed South China Sea and requiring foreign fishermen to ask Beijing’s permission to operate within most of the vast, strategic waterway.
The move, which took effect this month, comes on the heels of the announcement in late November last year of a new air defense zone requiring foreign planes to notify Beijing of flights over a huge swath of the East China Sea.
The steps are prompting concerns that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) push to assert China’s role as a regional power could spark a confrontation.
The affected waters account for 2 million kilometers of the South China Sea’s 3.5 million square kilometers, a sweeping area encompassing island groups claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines and others — and in some cases occupied by their armed forces.
Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez yesterday said that his country’s diplomats were seeking more information on the new South China Sea rules.
There was no immediate response from Vietnam.
The new rules demand that foreign vessels seek permission to fish or survey within waters administered by Hainan Province.
Authorities in Sansha, on an island far south of Hainan, held a joint drill on Wednesday last week involving 14 ships and 190 personnel from various border patrol and law enforcement agencies.
“Rampant infringement by foreign fishing vessels” was among the activities targeted in the practice scenarios, law enforcement official Wang Shizhen was quoted as saying by the China News Service.
Passed by Hainan’s provincial legislature in late November last year, the new rules say only that permission must be obtained from unnamed “relevant departments” under China’s Cabinet.
Chinese law allows for the confiscation of catches and fishing equipment and fines of up to 500,000 yuan (US$83,000) for violators.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
RSS