CHINA-TAIWAN WEEKLY UPDATE, SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

PRC officials have denied that the Taiwan Strait constitutes “international waters” and stressed the PRC’s jurisdiction over the entire strait, which may be intended to imply that foreign military ships should not sail there without Beijing’s permission. States, including the PRC, do not have sovereign rights to deny passage to foreign ships within their contiguous zone or Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), however. Such regions therefore are informally called “international waters” because any ship has a right to navigate freely in those waters. States can only restrict passage in their internal or territorial waters, which extend up to the country’s territorial baseline and 12 nautical miles beyond it, respectively.

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