Sputnik — ‘Act of Piracy’: China Blasts US Navy Proposal for South China Sea Privateers

In the April edition of its magazine Proceedings, the US Naval Institute, a nonprofit group connected to the US Naval Academy, floated the idea of Congress issuing letters of marque to private ships, authorizing them to prey on Chinese maritime vessels in a bid to turn the tide against Beijing in the South China Sea.

“Unleash the Privateers! The United States should issue letters of marque to fight Chinese aggression at sea,” write authors Brandon Schwartz and Mark Cancian, the latter of whom is a retired US Marine Corps colonel.

“Privateering, authorized by letters of marque, could offer a low-cost tool to enhance deterrence in peacetime and gain advantage in wartime,” the duo argues. “It would attack an asymmetric vulnerability of China, which has a much larger merchant fleet than the United States. Indeed, an attack on Chinese global trade would undermine China’s entire economy and threaten the regime’s stability. Finally, despite pervasive myths to the contrary, US privateering is not prohibited by US or international law.”

In reply to this and another, similar article published in the magazine, Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Senior Colonel Wu Qian denounced the proposal as “an act of piracy.”

"These actions are criminal activities explicitly prohibited under international laws, and will absolutely receive joint opposition and severe backlash from the international community," Wu said in a Thursday statement, China Daily reported.

Wu further said that the proposal exposed the hegemonic ideas and law-of-the-jungle mentality of the authors, "and the international community should be on guard against these thoughts.”

File under "WTF."

Sputnik International
‘Act of Piracy’: China Blasts US Navy Proposal for South China Sea Privateers