The report – “Legal Assessment of the United States’ ‘Freedom of Navigation’” – is the first official study of its kind published by Beijing and marks its growing desire to challenge what it characterised as “gunboat diplomacy”.
“US ‘freedom of navigation’ lacks a basis in international law and seriously distorts the interpretation and development of international law,” the report said.
It challenged Washington’s position on a number of grounds, saying: “The United States created several ‘legal concepts’. One is ‘international waters’. It does not exist in the contemporary law of the sea.”
The report added that freedom of navigation operations “risk threatening regional peace and stability with military force and disrupting the international maritime order [and] embody distinct illegality, unreasonableness and double standards”.
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Chinese ships collide during clash with Philippine coastguard in contested South China Sea
Chinese ships collide during clash with Philippine coastguard in contested South China Sea
The report added: “The US Navy has repeatedly and continuously entered into the territorial seas of other states worldwide for many years, aiming to challenge the requirement that foreign warships must give prior notification or receive authorisation before entering territorial seas.”
