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China never stops escalating its attempts to assume control of territory that does not belong to China. It’s behavior toward the Philippines has become increasingly aggressive over the past year and now China has instituted a policy to arrest anyone who disagrees. The new policy was announced last month.
Beijing has fleshed out the Chinese coastguard’s powers to detain foreigners suspected of illegally crossing borders, rolling out regulations on Wednesday that stipulate suspects can be held for up to 60 days without trial, amid rising tensions in the South China Sea.
While existing laws and regulations give coastguards the power to detain suspects, this is the first time a specific regulation has clarified the coastguard force’s law enforcement procedure for administrative detentions.
The release of the latest regulatory document, effective from June 15, coincided with a civilian mission from the Philippines that kicked off on Wednesday to assert Manila’s claims near the contested Scarborough Shoal, also known as Panatag Shoal.
I wrote about that civilian effort, dubbed Atin Ito – meaning this is ours, here. The new detention policy goes into effect this Saturday and already Manilla is seeing a surge in Chinese ships at sea.
