China’s new unified coast guard agency has gone into operation, state media reported Tuesday amid maritime disputes with neighbors, and experts said more ships will be armed as a result.
The China Coast Guard integrates the functions of marine surveillance, the existing coast guard which came under the police, fisheries law enforcement and Customs’ anti-smuggling maritime police.
The divisions “that were not allowed to be equipped with weapons can be armed now,” Yang Mian, professor of international relations at the Communication University of China, was quoted as saying by the Global Times newspaper.
“The new agency will also make our law enforcement more powerful.” The new agency will “have reasonable and legal law enforcement equipment” and “detect and rapidly handle in accordance with the law acts that harm China’s maritime rights and interests”, Zhang Junshe, a military researcher, wrote in a commentary in the PLA Daily.
Tensions have been growing over China ’s
island disputes with Japan
and other neighbors.
Chinese surveillance ships have frequently approached disputed islands in the East China Sea, whichJapan
controls and knows as the Senkakus but which China
claims as the Diaoyus, after Tokyo
nationalized some of them last September.
ThePhilippines and Vietnam have accused Beijing
of aggressively asserting its extensive claims in the South China Sea, although
tensions have abated slightly with Hanoi
in recent weeks.
With an eye on the rows, theUnited States
has strengthened military cooperation with Japan
and the Philippines — which
are both treaty-bound allies — as well as with former war adversary Vietnam .
Chinese surveillance ships have frequently approached disputed islands in the East China Sea, which
The
With an eye on the rows, the
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