A Chinese Perspective on the Innocent Passage of Warships, Contemporary Issues and Analysis

Bao, Yinan

doi:10.1007/978-981-33-6954-2_5

Yinan Bao⁹

Part of the book series: Kobe University Monograph Series in Social Science Research ((KUMSSSR))

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Abstract

Throughout the historical development of the international law of the sea, the endeavour to obtain a kind of balance between the freedom of navigation and the jurisdiction and security.

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International Order At Sea: What It Is. How It Is Challenged. How It Is Maintained

International Law and Freedom of Navigation Through the Suez Canal

Conclusion: International Order at Sea in the Twenty-First Century

Notes

1.
J. Kraska and R. Pedrozo, The Free Sea: The American Fight for Freedom of Navigation. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, pp. 224–246 (2018)
2.
T. Kelly, “Exclusive - British Navy Warship Sails Near South China Sea Islands, Angering Beijing”. 6 September 2018, Reuters, available at https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-china-southchinasea-exclusive/exclusive-british-navy-warship-sails-near-south-china-sea-islands-angering-beijing-idUKKCN1LM00V. Accessed 12 September 2018.
3.
R. Browne, US Navy sails past contested islands in South China Sea amid U.S.-China tensions. 30 September 2018, CNN, available at https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/30/politics/us-sails-south-china-sea/index.html. Accessed 3 October 2018.
4.
J. Ditzler and Doornbos. US Warships Conduct Back-to-Back Freedom of Navigation Passes in South China Sea, 21 November 2019. Stars and Stripes, available at https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/us-warships-conduct-back-to-back-freedom-of-navigation-passes-in-south-china-sea-1.608209. Accessed 25 May 2020.
5.
S. LaGrone, “USS Bunker Hill Conducts 2nd South China Sea Freedom of Navigation Operation This Week”. 29 April 2020. USNI News, available at https://news.usni.org/2020/04/29/uss-bunker-hill-conducts-2nd-south-china-sea-freedom-of-navigation-operation-this-week. Accessed 25 May 2020.
6.
K.Y. Zou, Implementation of the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention in China, in S. Lee & W. Gullett (ed.), Asia-Pacific and the Implementation of the Law of the Sea: Regional Legislative and Policy Approaches to the Law of the Sea Convention, Leiden: Brill Nijhoff, pp. 15–19 (2016).
7.
Hereinafter referred to as the “Chinese Territorial Sea Law”.
8.
Hereinafter referred to as the “UNCLOS” or the “Convention”.
9.
This specific stipulation on the restriction of the passage of foreign military vessels in the Chinese territorial waters is based on the “Declaration of the Government of the People’s Republic of China on China’s Territorial Sea” (4 September 1958).
10.
Declaration and Statements, Oceans & Law of the Sea, United Nations, available at http://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_declarations.htm#China Upon ratification. Accessed 12 September 2018. The Convention entered into force in China on the same day.
11.
J. A. Roach and R. W. Smith, Excessive Maritime Claims, Third Edition. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2012, p. 247.
12.
D. Cheney, Annual Report to the President and the Congress (1993), United States Department of Defense, available at https://policy.defense.gov/Portals/11/Documents/gsa/cwmd/FY1992%20DOD%20Annual%20FON%20Report.pdf. Accessed 13 September 2018.
13.
J. A. Roach and R. W. Smith, Excessive Maritime Claims, Third Edition. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers (2012), p. 247.
14.
Statistics summarised from US Department of Defense Annual FON operations Reports (2020). Available at https://policy.defense.gov/OUSDP-Offices/FON/. Accessed 25 May 2020.
15.
To be specific, Articles 17 and 19 of the UNCLOS. See H.S. Kim, (1994). “The 1992 Chinese Territorial Sea Law in the Light of the UN Convention”, 43 International and Comparative Law Quarterly, p. 902.
16.
Ibid, p. 904.
17.
Ibid, p. 894.
18.
T. Windsor, Innocent Passage of Warships in East Asian Territorial Seas, 3 Australian Journal of Maritime and Ocean Affairs (2011), p. 78.
19.
Article 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter.
20.
As cited in B. H. Oxman, “The Regime of Warships under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea”, 24 Virginia Journal of International Law (1984), p. 854.
21.
See Q.W., Zhu, “Warships Shall Not Enjoy the Right of Innocent Passage”, [1983] (2) Journal of Beijing College of Political Science and Law, pp. 44-50; and H.Y., Li, “Another Comment on the Innocent Passage of Foreign Warships in the Territorial Sea”, [1998] (4) Peking University Law Journal, pp. 88-91. Both articles are written in Chinese. No English translations are available.
22.
Scholars cited by Shao Jin include: Zhou Genshen, Fu Chu, Liu Zheyung, Yu Ning, and Wei Ming.
23.
J. Shao, “The Question of Innocent Passage of Warships”, 13 (1) Marine Policy (1989), pp. 59–60.
24.
Ibid, p. 60.
25.
Ibid, p. 61.
26.
Ibid.
27.
Ibid, p. 67.
28.
J. W. Zhao, “On the Interpretation Declarations by the State Parties to United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea concerning the Issue of Innocent Passage of Warships through the Territorial Sea”, [2005] (2) China Oceans Law Review (2005), pp. 305–306.
29.
B. Vukas, The Law of the Sea: Selected Writings. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2004 (2004), p. 140.
30.
Zhao, On the Interpretation Declarations by the State Parties to United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea concerning the Issue of Innocent Passage of Warships through the Territorial Sea, p. 308.
31.
Ibid.
32.
Y.M. Jin, On the Regime of Innocent Passage in the Territorial Sea. [2016] (2) Chinese Review of International Law, p. 68.
33.
Ibid.
34.
Erik Slavin Chinese Admiral Contests Freedom of Navigation in South China Sea”, 19 July 2016, Star & Stripes, available at https://www.stripes.com/news/chinese-admiral-contests-freedom-of-navigation-in-south-china-sea-1.419813. See also, Kraska and Pedrozo The Free Sea: The American Fight for Freedom of Navigation, p. 280.
35.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Remarks on US Warship's Illegal Entry into Waters Close to Nansha Islands”, 2 October, 2018, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PRC, available at https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2535_665405/t1601570.shtml. Accessed 3 October 2018.
36.
Ibid.
37.
For example, see “Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang's Regular Press Conference on May 6, 2019”, 6 May 2019, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PRC, https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/t1661163.shtml; “Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang's Regular Press Conference on May 20, 2019”, 20 May 2019, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PRC, available at https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/t1665026.shtml. Accessed 10 June 2019.
38.
X.M. Liu, “Who is really behind the tensions in the South China Sea?”, 9 May 2016, Financial Times, available at https://www.ft.com/content/147a3ff6-12d2-11e6-91da-096d89bd2173. Accessed 4 October 2016.
39.
B Starr, R. Browne and B. Lendon, “Chinese warship in 'unsafe' encounter with US destroyer, amid rising US-China tensions”, 2 October 2018, CNN News, available at https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/01/politics/china-us-warship-unsafe-encounter/index.html. Accessed 4 October 2018.
40.
Kraska and Pedrozo, The Free Sea: The American Fight for Freedom of Navigation, pp. 234–236.
41.
Anh Duc Ton, a Commander and lecturer at the Vietnamese Naval Academy, support this assertion. Anh Duc Ton, Innocent Passage of Warships: International Law and the Practice of East Asian Littoral States, 1 (2016) Asia-Pacific Journal of Ocean Law and Policy, p. 212.
42.
Based on US Department of Defense Annual FON operations Reports from these fiscal years. Available at: https://policy.defense.gov/OUSDP-Offices/FON/. Accessed 4 June 2019.
43.
Annal Freedom of Navigation Report 2018, available at https://policy.defense.gov/OUSDP-Offices/FON/ .
44.
B. Werner, Pentagon Pledges More Freedom of Navigation Operations in South China Sea, 31 May 2018, USNI News, available at https://news.usni.org/2018/05/31/34016. Accessed 4 October 2018.
45.
B. Werner, Future South China Sea FONOPS Will Include Allies, Partners, 12 February 2019, USNI News, available at https://news.usni.org/2019/02/12/41070. Accessed 4 June 2019.
46.
K. Y. Zou, “Innocent Passage for Warships: The Chinese Doctrine and Practice”. 29 Ocean Development and International Law (1998), pp. 212–215.
47.
Ibid, p. 214.
48.
See also: S. Yee, “Sketching the Debate on Military Activities in the EEZ: An Editorial Comment”, 9 (1) Chinese Journal of International Law (2010), p. 5.
49.
Declaration and Statements, Oceans & Law of the Sea, United Nations, available at http://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_declarations.htm#ChinaUponratification. Accessed 12 September 2018 (2018).
50.
N. Yu, On the Innocent Passage of Warships. [1985] 6 Foreign Legal Science, pp. 40-44, as cited in Zou, Innocent Passage for Warships. The Chinese Doctrine and Practice, p. 205.
51.
In Article 12 of the 2012 Law of the Sea of Vietnam. See C. D. Guymon, (ed.), Digest of United States Practice in International Law 2013, Office of the Legal Adviser, United States Department of State, 2013, p. 371.
52.
In its 2001 declaration when ratified the UNCLOS. See “Declaration and Statements, Oceans & Law of the Sea”, United Nations, available at http://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_declarations.htm#China Upon ratification. Accessed 4 October 2018.

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East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai, China
Yinan Bao

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Graduate School of Law, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan
Dai Tamada
School of Justice, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK
Keyuan Zou

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Bao, Y. (2021). A Chinese Perspective on the Innocent Passage of Warships, Contemporary Issues and Analysis. In: Tamada, D., Zou, K. (eds) Implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Kobe University Monograph Series in Social Science Research. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6954-2_5

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6954-2_5
Published: 03 April 2021
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