Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
Piracy at sea and China’s response
Zou Keyuan *
Piracy is the enemy of the human race. China, as a big maritime country, is obliged to suppress piracy under international treaties it ratified, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the two 1988 Conventions against maritime terrorism. Though China ‘s existing domestic law and law enforcement are not adequate to crack down on piracy effectively, China has been making increased efforts by tightening up anti-piracy measures, as illustrated in the recent piracy trial cases in China. China is also taking a positive attitude towards the regional cooperation which is necessary for the suppression of piracy in the China Seas.
Introduction
Piracy is traditionally regarded as hostis humani generis,
the enemy of the human race. Pirates commit acts of murder, robbery, plunder, rape or other villainous deeds at sea, cruelly against humanity. Because of the nature of the offence, piracy is punishable wherever encountered.1
Piracy existed and continues to exist in modern times. According to the latest report prepared by the Piracy Reporting Centre of the ICC International Maritime Bureau, between 1 January and 30 June 1999, there were 115 piracy incidents around the world.2
For that reason, the United Nations General Assembly, for the first time in 1998, called on all States, in particular coastal States in affected regions, to take all necessary and appropriate measures to prevent and combat incidents of piracy and armed robbery at sea.3
Piracy in the East Asian region is not new. It is recorded that as early as the 14th century piracy had already existed in the waters of Southeast Asia.4
During Zheng He’s seven
* Research Fellow, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
1. As is said, “a pirate, under the law of nations, is an enemy of the human race; being the enemy of all, he is liable to be punished by all”: United States
v. Smith
(1820) 5 Wheat. (US) 153, Appx, 7–8; quoted in the Harvard Draft Convention (1932) 26 A.J.I.L. Supp (4) 739, 763. However, it is worth mentioning that in the early European State system piracy was a legitimate practice. Pirates brought revenue to the sovereign, weakened enemies by attacking their vessels and settlements, and supplied European markets with scarce goods at affordable prices. The most successful of the British pirates were even knighted. See Janice E. Thomson, Mercenaries, Pirates, and Sovereigns: State-Building and Extraterritorial Violence in Early Modern Europe
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 107–108.
2. See ICC International Maritime Bureau, Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships,
Report for the Period 1 January-30 June 1999, 15 July 1999 (on file with the author).
3. UN Doc. A/RES/53/32 on “Oceans and the Law of the Sea”, adopted on 24 November 1998; available in http://www.un.org/Depts/los/res53e32.htm (access date: 25 September 1999).
4. For historical background on piracy in Southeast Asia, see Robert C. Beckman, Carl Grundy-Warr and Vivian L. Forbes, “Acts of Piracy in the Malacca and Singapore Straits” (1994) 1(4) IBRU Maritime Briefing,
1–4.
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