Analysts say the new law could trouble the already contested waters of the South China Sea. It was passed by China’s National People’s Congress committee on Friday, according to state media.
A draft wording of the bill states the coast guard is allowed to use “all necessary means” to prevent threats from foreign vessels, according to Reuters.
It also allows the coast guard to demolish buildings that other countries have built on territories that China claims for itself.
And the law permits coastguard personnel to inspect foreign vessels in waters Beijing claims.
Yesterday, the Philippines’ Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin hit out at the law, calling it a “verbal threat of war”.
Writing on Twitter, he also announced he had filed a diplomatic protest against it.
Mr Locsin said: “After reflection I filed a diplomatic protest. While enacting law is a sovereign prerogative, this one – given the area involved or for that matter the open South China Sea – is a verbal threat of war to any country that defies the law; which, if unchallenged, is submission to it.”
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China disputes the territory with Japan, which instead refers to the island chain as the Senkaku Islands.
China’s state-run Global Times news outlet stated: “China passed its coastguard legislation on Friday, and experts said China will safeguard sovereignty regarding the dispute with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands.”
China claims around 90 percent of the South China Sea, according to Australia’s ABC news, giving rise to disputes with a number of South-East Asian countries.
In other news, Taiwan last weekend reported that eight Chinese bomber planes plus four fighter jets and one anti-submarine aircraft had entered its air defence identification zone on Saturday, the BBC reports.
On Sunday, this was followed by a dozen fighter jets as well as two anti-submarine aircraft and a spy plane.
Both times the Chinese planes were warned away by Taiwan’s air force.