According to central media reports, China's newly revised Regulations on Administrative Law Enforcement of Coast Guard Agencies will grant the coast guard authorities the right to detain foreign citizens who illegally enter and leave the country for up to 60 days in an emergency.
This also means that as long as those who illegally trespass into the mainland's waters, including the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea, the East China Sea and other waters, they may be examined and detained by our coast guard.
Why the Philippines has repeatedly caused turmoil in the South China Sea
As we all know, the Philippines, as an island country, lacks oil and media, so it is very coveted in the resources of the South China Sea, and economic interests and resources are the direct driving force for the Philippines to seek rights and interests in the South China Sea. As early as 1956, Thomas Croma claimed that he had reached an agreement with New Zealand and other countries on the sale of phosphate rock, and dozens of tons of phosphate rock in the South China Sea had been concentrated to be shipped to New Zealand and other countries, and the first action of the Philippines to seek economic interests in the South China Sea was recorded in 1969, and in 1969, the United Nations and Far East Economic Commission issued an exploration report, announcing the results of the investigation that the South China Sea region contains rich oil and gas resources. It even stirred the hearts of the Philippines, and the Philippines began to invade and occupy China's islands and reefs.
With the development of China's economy and strong military strength, as well as the defeat of the South China Sea arbitration case in 2016, the Philippines has stopped causing turmoil in the South China Sea, but the U.S. policy toward the South China Sea has undergone a transformation from "neutrality and non-involvement" to "intervention but not falling in" to "intervention and more support". The strengthening of Philippine-US relations has affected the judgment of pro-US political forces in the Philippines on the South China Sea issue, and to a certain extent, promoted the radicalization of Philippine policy in the South China Sea, and the Philippines has vainly tried to obtain interests in the South China Sea with the support of the United States.
In April 2023, Admiral Aquilino, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, publicly stated that he would fully support the Philippines and declared that if a Philippine sailor or soldier died in the South China Sea, the Philippines could invoke the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty signed in 1951. This statement is seen as a sign that the US military is ready to intervene in the Sino-Philippine conflict in the South China Sea.
Zhou Bo, a researcher at Tsinghua University's Center for Strategic and Security Studies, also believes that the region with a higher risk of conflict between China and the United States is not the Taiwan Strait region, but the relatively underestimated South China Sea region. The U.S. actions in the South China Sea are simply about exacerbating potential technological risks in the absence of a constrained consensus between the two sides.
With the support of the US military, the Philippines has been jumping up and down in recent times, relying on the support of the United States, and even vainly trying to use hundreds of fishing boats to forcibly break into the mainland's Scarborough Shoal.
Since 2024, the Philippines has not only made trouble at Ren'ai Jiao, but also on many islands and reefs such as Huangyan Dao, Tiexian Reef and Xianbin Reef, and has even illegally landed on islands and reefs in the South China Sea. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the law enforcement power of our coast guard, and once our coast guard has the authority to detain, it will play a great deterrent role.
Only when the coast guard has a basis for law enforcement can it crack down on illegal acts to the greatest extent possible and ensure that these forces with ill intentions will not repeatedly provoke them.
The President of the Philippines protested
According to Philippine media reports, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. strongly condemned and protested China's recent announcement that it would detain foreign invaders in the South China Sea. The law, which will take effect in June, allows the Chinese coast guard to detain foreigners in "disputed waters" in the South China Sea for up to 60 days.
"This is completely unacceptable for the Philippines," Marcos said. I will not talk about the operational details, but we are ready for this. Our position is that this is unacceptable and we will do everything we can to protect our citizens. ”
Not only that, Marcos Jr. called on the new graduates of the Philippine Military Academy to make sacrifices for the country in the face of a "national territorial threat." "We will vigorously defend our territory against 'invaders who do not respect our territorial integrity,' but our actions will always be guided by the law and our responsibility as rule-abiding members of the international community," he said. ”
Philippine House Speaker Martin Romualdez has criticized China's latest policy, which he fears could escalate tensions in the "disputed waters."
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The key to the real solution to the escalation of the situation in the South China Sea lies with the United States, and for the United States, engaging in a "zero-sum game" without a bottom line is also a new way to maintain its hegemony. As long as the opponent's interests are more damaged, even if its own interests are damaged, the United States will not hesitate to do so, to put it simply, the United States is like a fist of seven wounds, although it knows that it will also be injured, but as long as the opponent is defeated, this price is within the scope of bearing. For example, the United States has continued to inflame the Ukraine crisis, and since the outbreak of the crisis, it has provided huge military assistance to Ukraine in order to plunge Russia into the quagmire of war. The fact that the United States does not hesitate to harm itself for the sake of others reflects that the United States has resorted to unscrupulous means to maintain its hegemony.
We still hope that the United States can abandon its hegemonic mentality and work together with China for development, while the Philippines should not think that with the support of the United States, it can be unscrupulous, and peaceful coexistence and common development are the long-term way.