CCP’s ‘second navy’ an increasing menace in East China, South China seas

FORUM Staff

The burgeoning and assertive Chinese coast guard (CCG) is becoming more visible, and troublesome, in disputed waters of the Indo-Pacific. From Indonesia and Vietnam to Japan and the Philippines, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) fleet of about 150 coast guard ships increasingly lurks off neighboring states’ shores, sometimes clashing with vessels pursuing fish, oil and gas, and minerals.

Observers say the CCG ships seek to assert authority in other states’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ), which extend up to 200 nautical miles, about 370 kilometers, offshore. Beijing contends that most waters and features in the South China Sea are Chinese territory, despite a 2015 international tribunal declaring those have no legal standing.

Beijing’s coast guard law, which took effect in February 2021, authorizes its maritime law enforcement fleet to use lethal force against foreign ships operating in Chinese-claimed waters. The law violates the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and counters the principle of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific, The Diplomat news magazine reported in April 2021. “Though it purports to be a law enforcement agency, the CCG’s combat capability far surpasses that of most Asian navies,” The Diplomat reported.

The CCG resembles a second navy, with some ships outfitted with the same artillery as warships, Kyodo News reported in early February 2023. As far back as April 2015, the United States Naval Institute noted the CCP was “steadily exploiting maritime law enforcement — and its coast guard — as an instrument of statecraft.” Since then, the CCG has grown dramatically, adding ships and personnel and sparking confrontations:

• Chinese and Philippine law enforcement clashed off Thitu Island when CCG sailors cut the towline of a Philippine vessel recovering Chinese rocket debris in late November 2022, about one year after CCG vessels fired water cannons to disrupt a food delivery to Philippine Marines on Second Thomas Shoal, also known as Ayungin Shoal, The Associated Press reported. The Philippine Coast Guard has stepped up patrols to thwart the CCG’s threats to fishermen and others in the area, Reuters reported in early February 2023.
• Four CCG ships approached a private vessel in Japanese territorial waters around the East China Sea’s Senkaku Islands in late January 2023, The Japan Times newspaper reported. Japan Coast Guard vessels demanded the CCG ships leave. Both nations claim exclusive rights to the area, a frequent site of confrontations.
• Beijing’s largest coast guard ship lingered for weeks near gas and oil fields in the Natuna Sea, where Indonesia and Vietnam have territorial rights, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported in January 2023. An Indonesian warship monitored the CCG vessel.

The CCG increased its presence at five South China Sea locations in 2022, with almost daily patrols in some areas, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

For example, at Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing seized from the Philippines in 2012, CCG ships patrolled on 344 days in 2022, up from 287 in 2020, AMTI’s analysis revealed. (Pictured: A China coast guard ship patrols at Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea in late December 2022.) At Vanguard Bank, a site of Vietnamese oil and gas development, CCG ships patrolled on 310 days in 2022 compared to 142 in 2020.

Such activity shows Beijing’s determination to control the vast maritime zone it claims as its territory, AMTI’s January 2023 report concluded.

Meanwhile, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ recently revived effort to develop a South China Sea code of conduct had little hope of success because the regional atmosphere is not conducive to an agreement, analysts told Benar News in early February 2023.

“Recent instances of Chinese coercion at sea against its Southeast Asian rivals, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, wouldn’t contribute to the building of trust,” Collin Koh, a researcher at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told Benar News.

IMAGE CREDIT: AFP/GETTY IMAGES