China to boost coastal forces amid sea tensions

June 17, 2011

BEIJING | Fri Jun 17, 2011 6:46am BST

(Reuters) - China will boost offshore surveillance by adding ships and 6,000

personnel by 2020, state media said on Friday, another move likely to raise

tensions with neighbours staking rival claims to waters thought to hold vast

reserves of oil and gas.

The expansion of the China Maritime Surveillance Forces, a paramilitary law

enforcement agency that patrols China's territorial waters, was unveiled two

days after the country sent its largest civilian maritime patrol ship to the

South China Sea.

The moves show Beijing's resolve to protect its " maritime rights and

sovereignty " which it says have been increasingly violated amid a rising

frequency of disputes.

The maritime surveillance forces, under the State Oceanic Administration, will

have 16 aircraft and 350 vessels by the end of the country's five-year plan

ending in 2015, and more than 15,000 personnel by 2020, the official China Daily

said citing an unnamed senior official.

" There have been an increasing number of intrusions by foreign vessels and

planes into Chinese waters and airspace in recent years, " the newspaper said.

It said that the maritime surveillance forces had logged 1,303 foreign ships and

214 planes intruding in 2010, compared to a total of 110 cases in 2007.

Tensions in the South China Sea have risen in the past month on concerns China

is becoming more assertive in the waters, parts of which are also claimed by the

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

China's claim is by far the largest, forming a large U-shape over most of the

sea's 648,000 square miles (1.7 million square km), including the Spratly and

Paracel archipelagos.

This week, Beijing warned outside countries not to step into the dispute, after

Vietnam said other countries, including the United States, could help defuse the

tension.

China has accused Vietnam of violating its claim to the Spratlys and nearby

seas, which Vietnam also deems its own. China calls the islands the Nansha

group.

Beijing said last week it would hold naval drills in June in the western Pacific

Ocean and the navy has done little to disguise plans to launch its first

aircraft carrier.

(Reporting by a; Editing by Kang Lim and Nick Macfie)

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