China's government is pushing a much broader and more assertive definition of the legal concept of the "Exclusive Economic Zone" off its shores than the general international understanding permits:
Beijing is now attempting to renovate some of the law's most basic and widely accepted terms, in a destabilizing effort that risks conflict. By asserting that foreign states only enjoy the right of innocent passage in what China refers to as the "special economic zone," Beijing is making a sophomoric misstatement of the plain letter of the law, mixing the terms and rules applicable to the regime of the territorial sea with those applicable in the exclusive economic zone. A few other states hold similar interpretations, but China is the most powerful and vociferous advocate for upsetting traditional notions of freedom of navigation and overflight.
|