BEIJING, China — January 8, 2014 — In a broadening campaign to enforce its territorial claims, China says it’s beefing up its police powers in the disputed South China Sea and requiring foreign fishermen to ask Beijing’s permission to operate within most of the vast, strategic waterway.
The move, which took effect this month, comes on the heels of the late November announcement of a new air defense zone requiring foreign planes to notify Beijing of flights over a huge swath of the East China Sea, where China is locked in a bitter territorial dispute with Japan.
The steps are prompting concerns that President Xi Jinping’s push to assert China’s role as a regional power could spark a confrontation with neighbors.
‘‘These sort of assertions of sovereignty, or territorial claims, will continue. Xi believes he can’t afford to be seen as soft,’’ said City University of Hong Kong China politics expert Joseph Cheng.
The affected waters account for 2 million of the South China Sea’s 3.5 million square kilometers (1.35 million square miles), a sweeping area encompassing island groups claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and others — and in some cases occupied by their armed forces. The islands sit amid the world’s busiest commercial sea lanes, along with rich fishing grounds and potential oil and gas deposits.
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