China should highlight 'military presence' on Diaoyu Islands

Maj. Gen. Luo Yuan, deputy secretary general of the China Military Science Society (CMSS) of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) recently proposed at the forum on the topic of "Marine Rights and Interests: The National Interests and Security of China" that China should realize military presence on the Diaoyu Islands in order to highlight China's territorial sovereignty.

According to Luo Yuan, China should preserve its maritime rights and interests in a comprehensive way. Although China often focuses on the "presence of sovereignty" on related islands and reefs, the "presence of sovereignty" should not be a lip-service. Rather, it should be realized in actions to highlight the six kinds of presence, namely the administrative presence, the legal existence, the military presence, the law enforcement presence, the economic presence and the public opinion presence.

Luo Yuan said that in terms of economic presence, not only the resources of oil and gas in relevant waters but also their tourist and cultural resources should be developed. The "development" should be a comprehensive one. In terms of legal presence, although China has already announced the territorial sea baselines of the Diaoyu Islands and the Xisha Islands, the territorial sea baselines for the Nansha Islands have yet to be announced so that China should seize this commanding height of law as soon as possible. In terms of the law enforcement presence, Luo Yuan proposed the prompt establishment of our own coast guards so as to integrate China's maritime law enforcement forces into a powerful unified force. "Otherwise, we will get the worst of it sooner or later if our unarmed peaceful enforcement to face the opponent's armed law enforcement. It will be too late at that point to remedy the situations," Luo Yuan said.