#China #CCG #LegalWarfare #MaritimePower Dream
CCG Regulation Number 3 (CCGR-3) was issued — on 15 May 2024 — which supposedly lays down detailed guidelines for implementation of that 2021 Law. The CCGR-3, spread over 16 chapters and encompassing 281 articles, came into force on 15 June 2024.[7] The regulation, by referring to the phrase “waters under the jurisdiction of our country” in Article 11, is as ambiguous on the specific geographical coverage as was the CCG Law of 2021 — and also uses the same terminology in its Article 25.[8] The most damning aspect of the CCGR-3 is contained in Article 105, which authorises the CCG to detain foreign ships that illegally enter “territorial waters” — a term not clearly defined either in the CCG Law-2021 or the CCGR-3. The fact that this detention — including that of personnel, too — can extend up to six months under the provisions of Article 257 of CCGR-3, makes it even more draconian.
Interestingly, while the applicability of CCGR-3 to the foreign ships has been mandated vide Article 105 as mentioned above, the regulation per-se makes no mention of foreign ‘State-owned vessels and warships’. This might well imply that such ‘State-owned vessels including warships’ also fall within the purview of the CCGR-3, and thus enjoy no special status or immunity. This glaring omission — whether deliberate or otherwise — leaves room for troubling interpretations by a concerned global community. The most obvious concern emanates from the fact that the United Nations “Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property” of 2004 asserts that “a State enjoys immunity, in respect of itself and its property, from the jurisdiction of the courts of another State…”[9] Article 16 of this Convention further clarifies that this immunity applies to “warships, naval auxiliaries, and other vessels owned or operated by a State and used, for the time being, on government non-commercial service”.
https://lnkd.in/gJFauJ-7
