South China Sea: Beijing’s foreign ships move ‘may go the same way as ADIZ’
- A new requirement for foreign vessels entering Chinese waters to report ship and cargo information may be difficult to enforce, observers say
- Countries contesting waters with China or challenging its claims are likely to disregard the regulation, they predict
The Maritime Safety Administration said that, taking effect on Wednesday, foreign vessels entering China’s territorial seas must report ship and cargo information.
The administration did not spell out how the requirement would be enforced, but said it would apply the law if vessels failed to comply.
Collin Koh, a research fellow from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said major players including the United States would not follow the regulation.
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Such an outcome would echo China’s declaration of an ADIZ in the East China Sea in 2013, which provoked a backlash from nations including Japan and the US. An ADIZ involves identifying, locating and controlling aircraft for security purposes, as first enforced by the US in 1950, but is not defined by any international treaty and is not treated as a nation’s territorial airspace.