China's Xi Doubles Down on Favorite Weapon Against US Allies

Chinese President Xi Jinping this month demanded his country's coast guard assertively enforce maritime law, doubling down on his preference for the powerful, non-military force that has caused policy dilemmas for the United States and its allies in the region.

During a recent visit to Shanghai, Xi emphasized the need to "resolutely defend China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests," according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV. His speech on December 1 was made to the People's Armed Police Force, the domestic security paramilitary agency that governs the China Coast Guard.

Xi's directive comes amid escalating maritime tensions between Beijing and its neighbors in the East and South China seas. In recent months, Chinese maritime law enforcement and maritime militia vessels have travelled hundreds of miles from the country's coast to engage in standoffs with the Phillippines, a U.S. treaty ally.

China's president listened to a work report by the coast guard's regional command for the East China Sea and inspected the the service's ship formations, CCTV said.

Japan, another long-time American ally in Asia, has faced mounting pressure from Chinese coast guard intrusions around the disputed Senkaku Islands, controlled by Tokyo but challenged by Beijing and, to a lesser extent, Taipei.

China, which calls the uninhabited island group Diaoyu, has probed Japanese defenses around the islets with near-daily coast guard patrols within the territorial or adjacent waters of the Senkakus in a pattern that has increased dramatically in the past decade, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry.

Tokyo has responded by redeploying some of its largest Japan Coast Guard vessels to the East China Sea. However, as in the South China Sea, Beijing's choice of non-military ships, which it has in abundance, has become something of a headache for governments in the region.

This week in the Spratly Islands archipelago, the Philippines said it was watching more than 100 Chinese paramilitary boats that had anchored at an unoccupied reef within its exclusive fishing waters. For the second time in three years, China's government said the vessels were legally sheltering from inclement weather—in Chinese waters.

The U.S. is treaty-bound to defend both Japan and the Philippines against attacks in the East and South China seas, respectively, but China's deliberate use of so-called "gray zone" tactics—coercive actions that fall short of war—means decision makers in Washington also must devise non-military solutions.

Xi's call for more assertiveness at sea may be illustrative of the Chinese leadership's assessment of the strategy's effectiveness, if not success. Regional governments are likely to watch for any robust actions by the China Coast Guard in light of the orders, particularly ahead of a potential clash with a civilian-led "Christmas convoy" dispatched by the Philippines next week.

Beijing's more forceful maritime patrols were accompanied by a new amended to China's Coast Guard Law, which came into effect on February 1, 2021.

The legislation worried neighbors after it appeared to authorize China's maritime law enforcement personnel to use lethal force on foreign ships operating in ill-defined Chinese waters, a mandate that extends to disputed waters in the East and South China seas as well as presumably in the Taiwan Strait.

The China Coast Guard "shall conduct law enforcement operations in the waters under the jurisdiction of China and in the airspace above the waters under the jurisdiction of China and apply this law," Article 3 of the law now reads.

The amendment also allows the government to call upon private fishing vessels to enforce maritime rights, pointing to more frequent use of China's maritime militia, whose existence is not officially acknowledged by Beijing. It says the boats belong to concerned citizens.