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本帖最后由 I'm_zhcn 于 2009-3-12 00:14 编辑
China hits out at US ‘illegal’ intrusion
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/20ee3368-0d45-11de-8914-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=9c33700c-4c86-11da-89df-0000779e2340.html
By Kathrin Hille in Beijing Published: March 10 2009 07:35 | Last updated: March 10 2009 20:32
China accused the US on Tuesday of “illegal” intrusion into its exclusive economic zone in a spat that could torpedo the two countries’ efforts to improve their military relationship following months of disruption.
The US navy surveillance ship Impeccable had “moved about in China’s EEZ in the South China Sea without approval from China”, said Ma Zhaoxu, a foreign ministry spokesman. He said that was in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and Chinese laws and regulations but refused to specify which legal requirements had been violated.
The Pentagon said on Monday that the US naval ships were permitted to operate inside the Chinese exclusive economic zone, adding that “coastal states do not have a right under international law to regulate foreign military activities in the EEZ”.
The accusation came in response to a complaint by the US government on Monday that Chinese coastguard vessels, fishing trawlers and naval vessels had harassed the Impeccable on Sunday, 75 miles south of the Chinese island of Hainan, in international waters.
That incident, during which the US says Chinese ships came “dangerously close” to the US vessel and threw debris in its way, came after similar scuffles last week, the White House said.
The controversy is similar to an incident in 2002, when Chinese naval vessels shepherded the USNS Bowditch, a US Navy survey vessel in the Yellow Sea.
As in the current case, the US blamed China of breaking international law because the ship was in international waters, while China accused the US of violating international law, arguing that the US vessel was in its exclusive economic zone.
US survey ships regularly move around in international waters close to the Chinese coast collecting intelligence about China’s increasing naval strength, including its growing submarine fleet. The spot where the incident occurred, according to the US, is close to a Chinese submarine base on Hainan.
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, activities in China’s EEZ would be illegal only if they were aimed at researching or prospecting natural resources. However, representatives of China’s military made clear that Beijing’s concerns are indeed military. China resolutely opposed US “activities for military purposes” in waters over which China had sovereignty, Major General Zhang Huachen, commander of the Fujian naval base, told state media. Security experts said the tussle was proof of the risks and irritants that still exist in the military relationship between Washington and Beijing.
“This shows how wary the two sides still are of each other,” said Jia Qingguo, a security expert at Peking University. “If the military dialogue is to become more than superficial nice words, they need to move ahead with some concrete co-operation to build trust,” he said.
Following a round of bilateral military talks two weeks ago, the US praised the contacts as their best ever and said the two sides were planning a meeting at deputy ministerial level very soon.
Observers expressed surprise at China’s decision to risk derailing the improvement in relations with aggressive moves against surveillance vessels, but said Beijing could be under domestic pressure to demonstrate strength in the face of a series of challenges to its sovereignty claims in the South China Sea.
Last month, the Philippine legislature enshrined its claim to nine islands in law. Separately, Malaysia’s prime minister repeated his country’s claims in the area.
Shipping and sovereigntyChina, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei all have competing claims for part or all of the archipelagos in the South China Sea, the Spratly and Paracel Islands, writes Kathrin Hille.
The region contains large untapped oil and gas reserves. It also includes some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, with mostly crude oil from the Middle East for east Asian countries passing through.
By the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, coastal states can establish sovereignty over their territorial waters, which extend 12 nautical miles off their coastline, and an exclusive economic zone (EEZ), up to 200 nautical miles off their coast.
Unclos limits the right to survey and to explore natural resources in EEZs to the coastal states, but non-adjacent nations are allowed to pursue other activities, including intelligence-gathering, as in all other international waters. China has signed and ratified Unclos. The US has not ratified it. |
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发表于 2009-3-11 22:03
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