London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Jul 30, 2025

A new law would unshackle China’s coastguard, far from its coast

A new law would unshackle China’s coastguard, far from its coast

It is the world’s biggest, and intends to use its muscle

THE ZHAOTOU-CLASS cutter may be a lowly coastguard ship. But it is no pushover. At 12,000 tonnes, it is the world’s largest vessel built for such use. It looms over most American or Japanese destroyers. Its roomy deck accommodates two helicopters, a 76mm gun and a thicket of other weaponry. China has two of them. One is deployed on its east coast.

The newest, CCG 3901 (the letters stand for “China Coast Guard”), set sail in 2017 on its maiden patrol of the South China Sea, its designated sphere of operation. Nowhere around China’s shores are waters more contested. The arrival of the behemoth is intended to make a point: China backs its claims in that area with a panoply of steel.

Soon CCG 3901 will have extra ammunition. In November China published a draft law that would empower the coastguard to demolish other countries’ structures built on Chinese-claimed reefs, and to board and expel foreign vessels. In some circumstances it could even fire on hostile ships. The deadline for public comment expired as The Economist went to press.

Over the past decade, the seas around China have been roiled by rival activity and enmity. In the East China Sea, Chinese vessels have been probing waters around the Japanese-held Senkaku islands—uninhabited outcrops which China also claims (and calls the Diaoyu). In the South China Sea China has turned disputed reefs into island fortresses.

America and its allies have in turn sent a growing parade of warships to challenge China’s claims there. China’s navy, the world’s largest, has been ever more active, too. But its coastguard, also the world’s largest, has become increasingly important in this contest.

In 2013 China merged several civilian maritime law-enforcement agencies into a new unified one, called the Chinese Coastguard Bureau. Five years later this was put under the command of the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary force that reports to the Central Military Commission, the country’s supreme military body. In effect, this turned China’s coastguard into a branch of the armed forces—much like its counterparts in America and India.

It has also benefited from a shipbuilding spree. Today China’s coastguard has more than 500 ships. In the region, Japan is a distant second with 373. Others trail far behind. Taiwan has 161, the Philippines 86 and Indonesia a mere 41. China’s ships have got beefier, too.

A decade ago China had just ten vessels with a full-load displacement of at least 1,500 tonnes (about the size of a small warship). By 2015 it had 51 such ships. Today it has 87, says the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think-tank.

Many of the coastguard’s ships now dwarf the largest warships in the region’s smallest navies. The most capable, says Olli Suorsa of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, are “essentially navy ships painted white”, minus the missiles (though that is also true of Japan’s coastguard).

The Type 818 patrol ship, for instance, is a modified version of the Chinese navy’s Type 054A frigate. Such large ships are less agile than smaller ones, but they convey suitable menace.



That comes in handy, for China uses its coastguard not only for routine maritime law-enforcement—such as catching smugglers—but also to project power. When China dispatched the HD8, a survey vessel, to Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone last year, it sent a flotilla of coastguard ships, including the CCG 3901, as back-up.

Some blocked Vietnamese coastguard ships from approaching. When the HD8 was sent to Malaysian economic waters in April, the CCG 3901 tagged along again.

A report published last year by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, found that 14 Chinese coastguard vessels patrolling disputed features in the South China Sea had broadcast their location on the Automated Identification System, an international ship-tracking network, to demonstrate a “routine, highly visible Chinese presence”.

The Chinese coastguard’s near-constant vigil in the South China Sea has been helped by the supplies it receives from China’s newly built outposts there.

In the East China Sea, coastguard ships have spent a record number of days this year near the Senkakus. In October two of its vessels sailed in the islands’ territorial waters (ie, less than 12 nautical miles from shore) and stayed for longer than 39 hours, the previous record.

Sometimes the coastguard is used in support of China’s “maritime militia” of armed fishing vessels, which the country uses to establish a presence in disputed waters. In April Vietnam accused China’s coastguard of ramming and sinking a Vietnamese fishing vessel near the Paracel islands in the South China Sea, to which both countries lay claim. It was the second such incident there in less than a year.

America worries about the Chinese coastguard’s growing role as an enhancer of Chinese maritime power. Last year an American admiral hinted that, in the event of a clash, America’s navy would treat vessels belonging to China’s coastguard and maritime militia no differently from those of its navy.

In October America said it would explore the viability of deploying its own coastguard vessels to American Samoa, in the South Pacific, to counter China’s “illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and harassment of vessels”.

China has reacted huffily to other countries’ concerns about the draft coastguard law. To some extent, it is right to be miffed. Most of the bill’s provisions match those of laws elsewhere and accord with international norms, says Collin Koh of RSIS.

But there is every reason to worry about the Chinese law’s proposed scope. It covers China’s “jurisdictional waters”, a term that the country applies to most of the South China Sea, says Ryan Martinson of the US Naval War College. Most of those waters are claimed by other countries or regarded as part of the global commons.

China’s sweeping assertion of rights there was largely rejected in 2016 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international tribunal in The Hague. Article 22 of the draft bill would allow China’s coastguard to create “temporary exclusion zones”, potentially cordoning off swathes of open ocean.

According to Mr Koh, the Chinese coastguard has been complaining for years that it needs such a law to give it more clout in its dealings with rival forces in the South China Sea. The coastguard is “powerful”, says Hu Bo, director of the Beijing-based South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, a think-tank. But, he adds, it has a “heavy task”.

In 2016, when Indonesia’s navy fired on a Chinese fishing boat and detained its crew, the coastguard felt powerless to respond—worried, apparently, that using force without explicit legal backing might harm China’s image. “It was a big failure,” says Mr Martinson. “There was likely a lot of soul-searching after that.” The new law will serve notice that the white-hulls may shoot back.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Former Judge Charged After Drunk Driving Crash Kills Comedian in Brazil
Jeff Bezos hasn’t paid a dollar in taxes for decades. He makes billions and pays $0 in taxes, LEGALLY
China Increases Use of Exit Bans Amid Rising U.S. Tensions
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Procter & Gamble to Raise U.S. Prices to Offset One‑Billion‑Dollar Tariff Cost
House Republicans Move to Defund OECD Over Global Tax Dispute
Botswana Seeks Controlling Stake in De Beers as Anglo American Prepares Exit
Trump Administration Proposes Repeal of Obama‑Era Endangerment Finding, Dismantling Regulatory Basis for CO₂ Emissions Limits
France Opens Criminal Investigation into X Over Algorithm Manipulation Allegations
A family has been arrested in the UK for displaying the British flag
Mel Gibson refuses to work with Robert De Niro, saying, "Keep that woke clown away from me."
Trump Steamrolls EU in Landmark Trade Win: US–EU Trade Deal Imposes 15% Tariff on European Imports
ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman says people share personal info with ChatGPT but don’t know chats can be used as court evidence in legal cases.
The British propaganda channel BBC News lies again.
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
×