Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. called it a “verbal threat of war.” While the war posturing could be directed mainly at Japan across the East China Sea and across the strait at Taiwan, which Beijing considers as its renegade province, the impact of a law passed on Jan. 22 by China’s National People’s Congress is fueling tension across the region.
The law authorizes the Chinese Coast Guard to board for inspection and fire at foreign vessels it deems as threats. The law also allows China to set up temporary exclusion zones in waters it claims as its own, which could lock out foreign fishermen including Filipinos and threaten freedom of navigation.
The area claimed by Beijing, delineated by an imaginary nine-dash line, covers nearly the entire South China Sea plus the East China Sea. Unlike civilian coast guards in other countries, the Chinese coast guard, which used to be under the civilian control of the State Council and the State Oceanic Administration, was placed under the Central Military Commission in July 2018. So shots fired by a Chinese Coast Guard vessel is a military action that can be deemed as a hostile act.
After initially saying that the order was none of our business, Locsin made an about-face and announced on Wednesday that he had fired off a diplomatic protest. Failure to do so, he pointed out, could be deemed by Beijing as acquiescence.
Beyond filing formal protests, which Beijing has routinely brushed aside, the new Chinese law calls for a concerted response to something that impacts the entire region. Southeast Asia and the rest of the Asia-Pacific have enjoyed several decades of peace, allowing the region to enjoy prosperity. The last thing the region needs is destabilization from expansive territorial claims, especially in the time of COVID when economies are badly battered and development efforts have been severely derailed.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations must unite in responding to this latest development, which could affect even ASEAN member states with no maritime claims in the South China Sea. Surely the Philippines is not the only country that sees this new law as a “verbal threat of war.”