Mosquito fleet
As the world waits warily for the launch of Beijings first aircraft carrier,which is now expected to take place some time next month,Chinas East Asian neighbours have their hands full dealing with its maritime militias.
While China claims almost all the waters of the South China Sea,other states in the littoral like Vietnam,the Philippines,Malaysia and Brunei have competing territorial claims. In the East China Sea,Japan and China have been quarrelling over islands,fisheries and offshore hydrocarbon reserves.
The Maritime Surveillance Force is only one of the five agencies responsible for law and enforcement in the waters that China claims. The others are the Coast Guard,which is a military force that constantly patrols the coasts. The Maritime Safety Administration handles search and rescue along the coast. The Fisheries Law Enforcement Command polices fishing grounds. The Customs Service polices smuggling.
Michael Richardson of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore reports that Beijing is also organising its massive fishing fleet to contribute to maritime security. In recent years,Chinese fishing boats have played a crucial role in harassing US naval vessels and Southeast Asian oil and gas survey ships in the South China Sea,as well as Japan Coast Guard patrol ships in the East China Sea.
Chinas asymmetric naval tactics make it difficult to blame the PLAN for maritime incidents while achieving many strategic objectives in its contested waters that Beijing claims as its own,Richardson notes.
Maritime Confidence
As maritime tensions between China and its East Asian neighbours as well as the United States rise,there is some concern that naval incidents in South and East China seas could be the potential triggers for a major war in Asia.
The big question is whether they can be reduced by a structure of bilateral and regional maritime confidence building measures. A recent study from the Lowy Institute in Sydney provides possibly the first comprehensive discussion on ways to lower naval tensions in the waters of Asia. The authors,Rory Medcalf and Raoul Heinrichs,say Asias infrastructure of maritime confidence-building measures (CBMs) such as military dialogues,real-time communication channels and formalised rules of the road is flimsy and under-utilised.
Underlining the difficulties of developing maritime restraint regime in the waters of Asia,Medclaf and Heinrichs say part of the problem rests in the fundamental differences between China on the one hand and the US and its allies on the other on the meaning and utility of CBMs.
Washington believes that maritime CBMs with China can and should be pursued in order to maintain stability,especially in the context of a conspicuous and mutual lack of trust. Beijing in contrast holds that strategic trust needs to be established before serious military dialogue,confidence-building and cooperation can be attempted at sea.
More basically,China would like to see a significant reduction in US naval profile in the Pacific and Indian Oceans,while Washington believes its forward presence has been the key to security and stability in Asia since the end of the Second World War. The study calls for more maritime CBMs between China on the one hand and the US and its East Asian allies on the other. The report also calls for a maritime security dialogue between Delhi and Beijing.
India,Australia and other Indian Ocean states have a good opportunity now while Chinas security presence and role west of the Strait of Malacca remains slight to try to establish rules,understandings and habits of maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean, conclude Medcalf and Heinrichs.
Lanka adopts Yuan
Last week,the Sri Lankan Central Bank announced the inclusion of the Chinese yuan in the list of designated currencies permitted for international transactions through banks in Sri Lanka. Among the other currencies in the designated list are the euro,the Hong Kong dollar,the Japanese yen,the Singapore dollar,sterling and the US dollar.
Reports from Colombo say the Indian rupee might get onto the list if economic and political relations with Delhi continue to improve. Meanwhile Colombos decision reinforces the growing international usage of the yuan.
The writer is a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research,Delhi
