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| Taipei, Taiwan |
President Xi Jinping of China has issued legislative guidelines allowing a trial of military operations outside of China's borders amid rising tensions over China's foreign ministry's claims that the Taiwan Strait is Chinese territorial water. This week's official state media reports were sparse on details but claimed that Xi had approved the instructions outlining the trial schedules for "military actions other than war". The trial's start date was specified as Wednesday.
The People's Liberation Army of China would have a legal foundation to "safeguard China's national sovereignty, security, and development interests," according to a later story from the state-backed nationalistic newspaper Global Times. According to the statement, they would also permit military operations including peacekeeping, humanitarian aid, and disaster relief.
The newspaper stated that the law modifications would enable troops to "avoid spillover effects of regional instability from hurting China, protect crucial transit routes for essential resources like oil, or preserve China's abroad interests, projects, and personnel."
According to some experts, the action seemed to replicate Vladimir Putin's description of Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a "special military operation."
Fears have been sparked by Russia's incursion in Taiwan, which Beijing says is a part of China and has not excluded out "reunifying" by force. Taiwan, which was once known as the Republic of China (Taiwan), insists that it is a sovereign nation.
A representative of Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive party, Chen Ou-PO, expressed his hope that China would not utilise the new rules to "act arbitrarily and attack other nations."
An expert on Indo-Pacific defence strategy named Blake Herzinger said he was more likely to view the trend as the armed forces developing than as anything "especially scary."
He said on Twitter, "The PLA already has a permanent presence overseas under a basing arrangement. However, building the policy groundwork for more strong PLA engagement in China's foreign policy would have influence on the future bases some have mentioned (Cambodia, Solomons, etc.). "This is something that I am more likely to think about in terms of stability operations or other actions involving Chinese residents and investors in Pakistan and others."
According to Richard Marles, Australia's defence minister, China is attempting to "shape the globe around it in a way it has not done before."
In locations like the South China Sea, upholding the UN convention on the law of the sea, freedom of navigation, and freedom of overflight is in the national interest, he said.
Chinese officials from the foreign ministry laid a claim on the Taiwan Strait, the body of water separating China from Taiwan's main island, on Monday. Recently, during freedom of passage drills, other countries have sailed warships across the strait, angering Beijing.
The majority of nations do not have official diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which has important defensive arrangements with the US and widespread backing from other governments across the world.
Wang Wenbin, the ministry's spokesman for international relations, claimed on Monday that China had "sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait" and that other nations that claimed the strait was an international waterway were lying "to find a pretext for manipulating issues related to Taiwan and threatening China's sovereignty and security."
Ned Price, a spokesman for the US State Department, told Reuters that the strait was an international waterway with high seas freedoms that were protected by international law. The US "will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, and that includes transiting across the Taiwan Strait," he added, reiterating US worries about China's "aggressive language and coercive behaviour against Taiwan."
Joanne Ou, a spokesman for Taiwan's foreign ministry, described China's attitude as "fallacious" and asserted that Taiwan supported US freedom of navigation drills.
"China's decision to confront the US now signals a greater Chinese willingness to protect and promote its viewpoints on the Taiwan issue, even if that may lead to heightened tensions with the US," Zhao added.
According to Steve Tsang of the Soas Institute, the shift in vocabulary was a reflection of how more Sino-centric Xi's government was thinking and acting. Tsang declared, "It is not helpful for peace and security in the area or worldwide."
It's likely that little will really change, in which case foreign vessels passing through these international seas will continue to be watched but unaffected. However, unless the latter obtained prior authorization from the Chinese government, which is highly unlikely to occur, it may potentially result in a more aggressive approach with Chinese warships or planes seeking to warn off international vessels.