China Has Announced Plans That May Bar Foreign Ships From Passing Through Its Territorial Waters

© AFP 2016/ FREDERIC J. BROWN

Sputnik: China May Bar Foreign Ships From Passing Through Its Territorial Waters

Officials in Beijing have announced plans to revise a 34-year-old maritime safety law that would permit relevant authorities to “bar some foreign ships from passing through Chinese territorial waters,” according to Chinese state media outlets.

China and the US have maintained a consistent tension over US ships transiting the South China Sea under the banner of "freedom of navigation" patrols, and the revised law could provide China with the legal firepower to restrict access to waters it claims as its own. It is not clear what means China would use to enforce a revised version of the 1984 Maritime Traffic Safety Law.

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Update #1: Draft maritime law revisions say China may bar foreign ships from passing through its waters (People.cn)
Update #2: China May Bar US Ships From Passing Through Its Waters (Zero Hedge)

WNU Editor: Beijing is laying the legal framework to justify their stopping of foreign ships in waters that they consider belongs to them.

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