Comments on: More on the Incident in the South China Sea (Updated)

By: sam

sam — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:54:39 +0000

Well, it does strain credulity a mite to suppose that a state of the art US surveillance vessel streaming a towed array was just happening by a state of the (Chinese) art submarine base...

By: Bithead

Bithead — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:30:19 +0000

There is little doubt what the Impeccable was doing 75 miles off the coast of the island of Hainan, where the Chinese have built a major submarine base.

We have a winner!

SITYS.

By: The Glittering Eye » Blog Archive » Foreign Policy Blogging at OTB

The Glittering Eye » Blog Archive » Foreign Policy Blogging at OTB — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:14:21 +0000

[...] More on the Incident in the South China Sea (Updated) [...]

By: Bithead

Bithead — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:42:52 +0000

There's another possibility here that is seemingly ignred, thusfar; There is something in that stretch of water that the Chinese are quite interested in keeping secret.

The captains in question appear to have been acting independantly, but I doubt they'd act in quite that aggressive a fashion, absent a standing order. The existance of such an order would be in keeping with something under that part of ocean that the Chinese are interested in keeping secret.

Speculation of course, but if we're going to do that anyway, why not cover ALL the options?

By: JKB

JKB — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:32:59 +0000

In general, you do not collect scientific data in another country's EEZ without prior agreement. Otherwise, you may transit and stop in the EEZ. This contrasts with rights of passage through the contiguous zone (12-24 nm) where ships may transit but not stop except in emergency. There seems to be some differences of opinion between international convention and Chinese interpretation of military survey ships in their EEZ. But that is what the US Navy does, they exercise rights of innocent passage and other conventions routinely during their operations to keep the sea lanes open in the internationally recognized manner.

By: Matthew Stinson

Matthew Stinson — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:14:47 +0000

EEZs have no security functions, just exclusive economic rights (e.g. no one else can fish or drill there without permission). China is flatly lying about the EEZ concept here. It'll be dangerous if countries can say no foreign vessels are allowed into waters 200nm from their coasts.

By: Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg

Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:08:04 +0000

WRT the EEZ, China is entitled to control commercial exploitation of resources within that zone, but it's a tough sell to say that an oceanographic survey vessel is engaged in some kind of economic activity. As long as they're operating greater than 12nm from China's land, they're completely legal.