The Evolution of Chinese Maritime Law Enforcement Agencies, 1949-2018: Domestic and External Interactions

Abstract

Why and how have China's maritime law enforcement agencies (MLEAs) evolved from being instruments primarily focused on maintaining economic, social and environmental order at sea to becoming active frontline players in maritime territorial disputes? Existing literature on MLEAs offers isolated and somewhat contradictory views about the structure, capability, role and function of China's MLEAs, leading to different conclusions on Chinese maritime policy-making. By examining three path-dependent phases and one transitional period in chronological order, this thesis argues that the interactions between domestic and external factors throughout different periods contributed to the Chinese central government's shift from a maritime economy-centric agenda to a rights protection-oriented maritime territorial agenda. Consequently, this shift resulted in changes in the structure, capability, role and function of the MLEAs. During Phase One (1949-1980s), the Chinese central government's preoccupation with land-based threats, both domestically and externally, resulted in the dominance of the "land dominates the sea" model. This model determined the early fragmented structure of China's maritime administration and law enforcement, as the central government relied on land-based sectors managing limited maritime activities. Subsequently, from the early 1980s onwards, the continued involvement of pre-existing land-based sectors in maritime administration and law enforcement further reinforced the fragmented structure of the MLEAs through a path-dependent process. During Phase Two (1980s-early 2000s), the Chinese central government's Reform and Opening policy served as a domestic factor which incentivised its participation in and accession to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982, while the latter served as a favourable external factor by granting China with extended maritime space, jurisdiction, legal framework and experience for ocean governance. This two-level interaction facilitated the Chinese central government's development of a marine economy-centric maritime agenda. This new agenda further led to the establishment of multiple MLEAs under various ministries which were land-based actors previously involved in maritime affairs. The transitional period in the mid-2000s highlighted some impacts created by the structural and jurisdictional problems of the MLEAs. While these problems constrained the MLEAs' ability in conducting law enforcement, including rights protection operations in disputed waters, some MLEAs actively pursued their own agenda and interests within the limit of central authority, as exemplified in the SOA/CMS' development of the Regular Rights Protection Patrol Scheme. Phase Three (late 2000s-2018) witnessed the emergence of the MLEAs as a unique set of domestic factors contributing to China's evolving maritime territorial policies and agenda. Their increased interactions with active foreign claimants and agencies resulted in heightened tension in the region, which, in turn, prompted the Chinese central government's reflection and adjustment in its maritime territorial policies and adoption of a series of more proactive, rights protection-focused maritime policies, including the restructuring of the MLEAs in 2013. Nevertheless, the restructuring process before 2018 was slow and incomplete, as the central government prioritised boosting the MLEAs' rights protection capability to address external challenges rather than resolving the structural and jurisdictional problems of the MLEAs thoroughly. The study on the evolution of the MLEAs provides empirical insights into Chinese domestic maritime actors and enhances our understanding of Chinese maritime policymaking. Moreover, the application of the two-level interaction framework bridges gaps in the existing literature and contributes to the scholarship on the domestic-external nexus in China studies and International Relations. Show more