The Supreme People's Court said on Sunday that in order to protect China's maritime rights and national sovereignty, the nation will set up an international maritime judicial center. The political move from China comes as tensions rise in the South China Sea, where it is locked in a long-running maritime dispute with several countries
South China Morning Post reported that the plans for creating a judicial maritime center were to improve Beijing's expertise in legal issues and raise its profile in global arbitration. Chief Zhou Qiang of Supreme People Court said China would improve the work of its maritime courts and should work to implement the goal of establishing the country into a One Belt, One Road policy. However, Chief Zhou gave no further details about the center.
China and several Southeast Asian neighbors locked horns overs claims in the South and East China Seas. In 2013, the Philippines filed a case to an arbitration court in The Hague over the disputes in the South China Sea and reports say that a ruling is expected this year in May.
According to CNN, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China was moving in accordance with the law for not accepting the arbitration. China refused to take part in the legal proceedings, but the case has prompted calls for the nation to improve its approach to international law.
China claims most of the South China Sea, but Brunei, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Philippines have overlapping claims.
Experts claimed that the recent maritime judicial center would primarily handle economic cases, rather than public international law, which is at the core of the case in The Hague which was filed by the Philippines. Wang Jing, a Maritime lawyer said that a Chinese maritime court could arbitrate if, for example, two fishermen - regardless of their nationality- were involved in a dispute in waters controlled by China in the South China Sea.
Chief Zhou mentioned one notable case which involves a Chinese fishing boat which took damage during a collision with a Panama-flagged freighter in waters off to the Diaoyu Islands in 2014, says CRJ English.
Reports say that Chinese maritime courts handle 16,000 cases in 2015.
