China Begins Patrolling Boundary of its "Nine-Dash Line" Claim

For the first time, China’s coast guard has begun patrolling a section of the country’s “nine-dash line” – the loosely-defined boundary of Beijing’s unilateral claim to the South China Sea, including international waters and other states’ exclusive economic zones. 

Since the beginning of the new year, a group of large China Coast Guard cutters have been rotating through patrol duty in an area just off Zambales, Luzon. At closest approach, the patrols have come within about 55 nautical miles of Philippine shores. 

One of the deployed vessels is CCG 5901, the largest armed law enforcement vessel in the world at 12,000 tonnes displacement. Over VHF, its crew has informed the Philippine Coast Guard that the CCG is enforcing Chinese law in Chinese waters, even when 1…