Despite Chinese protests about the use of the waterway — which it claims jurisdiction over — German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has insisted that the ships are in international waters.
A German warship and an accompanying navy vessel entered the Taiwan Strait on Friday, despite protests from China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan and asserts influence over the body of water.
“International waters are international waters,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Friday at a press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Laurynas Kasciunas.
“It’s the shortest route and, given the weather conditions, the safest, so we’re going through.”
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The use of the strait angers Beijing, but it is officially an international waterway and major trade route through which around half of global container ships pass.
You keep using the term “allowed” as though there’s some global arbiter of the rules. There isn’t.
As I started off by saying, if China claims sovereignty in whatever waters, and other nations respect that claim, then sooner or later it will be theirs for all intents and purposes.
Being signatories to a treaty is not decisive if no one follows the treaty.
If what you’re saying is true, why would we need freedom of navigation exercises?
Are you trying to argue that laws and treaties are worthless unless enough people abide by them and are willing to enforce them?
Because, yes, that is the fundamental principle of society: We need to work together to survive and thrive, so we agree on rules by which we work, and enforce them on those that break them. If you disagree with something but take no steps to oppose it, your disagreement is just as worthless as a law nobody cares to enforce.
So what point are you trying to make here? “If China enforced their claim and nobody stopped them, their claim would be effectively valid”? How is that relevant to the situation if all they’re doing is protesting, but nobody else cares to back them up and they don’t actually take measures to prevent the passage?
“If I put pineapple on my Pizza and nobody stops or punishes me, it’s legal”? Yes. Congrats. You understood the very basics. Want a sticker?
No.
My point is, their consistent claims of this territory over several decades will provide their allies a fig leaf when they ratify China’s claim.
Why else are freedom of navigation exercises like this one necessary?
Why else would China make this big song and dance when this outcome was obvious and predictable?
I’m using the term “allowed” in the sense of “China agreed to this and put it in its own law”. Freedom of navigations exercises are a way to tell a country “Do what you promised, we are willing to fight you about it if you don’t”. Since China has not actually stopped this exercise, it is following the treaty despite all its complaints. Even America follows the treaty, despite having not signed it.
Yeah, this is true. The treaty is just the specific set of terms (almost) everyone agreed to and continues to follow. Since everyone almost everyone agreed to it and everyome does follow it, it’s an easy point of reference to get international cooperation on. I’m sure the reaction would be quite different if China had fired on this ship vs if it had done so in a world with no agreements on territorial waters and innocent passage. In the latter case, a lot of countries would probably just tell Germany “well why did you sail a gunship where you weren’t supposed to?”