Freedom of navigation key to deterring China lawfare: U.S. senator

Taipei, July 8 (CNA) United States Senator Tammy Duckworth has urged countries to exercise their freedom of navigation rights by transiting waters claimed by China as a way to keep China from establishing jurisdiction over those waters.

Duckworth made the appeal in response to a question at the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei on Wednesday on the importance of international responses to China's attempts to conduct "law enforcement patrols" in waters east of Taiwan.

The patrols began in early June, with Chinese coast guard vessels requiring commercial vessels passing through the area to report their destinations.

"It is important for the norms, international norms, for us to continue to transit these waters in accordance with international law and not allow the Chinese to establish any foothold in creating a different order," Duckworth said.

The issue could also have implications for the Taiwan Strait, Duckworth said, suggesting that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could at some point require all ships transiting the strait separating China and Taiwan to first register with the Chinese coast guard.

"We cannot allow that to happen," she said.

To prevent that scenario, the Illinois senator said, countries must take a united stand in exercising their right to transit the Taiwan Strait and overtly reject attempts by the CCP to force upon them the new norms and rules that it wants to create.

Earlier in the day, Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲), who heads the Ocean Affairs Council (OAC) that is hosting the conference, highlighted during her remarks the danger of China's "gray zone" activities gradually chipping away at the "status quo" in the Taiwan Strait.

Kuan said members of the international community often issue statements opposing unilateral changes to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, but the status quo is already being altered through continuous aggressive actions that fall below the threshold of conventional war.

Among the examples she cited were sabotaging undersea communications cables and conducting law enforcement operations in waters off Taiwan and military exercises in the country's vicinity.

"In the end, we might suddenly find that even without the outbreak of a decisive war, the status quo no longer exists," Kuan said.

She referred to the Chinese coast guard's deployment of ramming tactics and water cannons against Philippine coast guard vessels, which she said are actions of the same nature.

Democracies should identify patterns in gray zone actions by China in different maritime areas and establish a common understanding of the "status quo," thereby facilitating the establishment of coordinated responses to potential escalations and crises, she said.