Xi highlights key role of coast guard

He stresses need to resolutely safeguard territorial sovereignty, maritime rights

President Xi Jinping has underlined the importance of bolstering the nation's capability in protecting its maritime rights and carrying out effective maritime law enforcement, during a visit to a unit of the China Coast Guard in Shanghai.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inspected the command office for the East China Sea area of the China Coast Guard under the People's Armed Police Force on Wednesday.

The president listened to the work report of the command office and inspected the patrol of the coast guard's vessels via video link before offering his approval to the command.

He emphasized the need to effectively safeguard rights and enforce the law, and resolutely safeguard China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.

It is important to establish a sound mechanism for maritime law enforcement coordination, crack down on illegal activities at sea in accordance with the law, and safeguard the healthy development of China's maritime economy, he said.

Xi called for pragmatic steps to conduct international exchanges and cooperation in maritime law enforcement and actively participate in international and regional marine governance.

The president highlighted the necessity to come up with concrete road maps to bolster the level of development for the command office.

He urged the command office to boost its Party building across the board to ensure political commitment, saying that formalism and bureaucratism should be strictly prevented.

The coast guard must give strong priority to development at the grassroots level to forge strong and resilient battle fortresses, and improve the capabilities of grassroots units in their self-development.

The China Coast Guard was established in July 2013 as a result of a government reorganization, merging several organs administered by separate government departments that independently conducted law enforcement operations on the sea, such as the maritime police under the public security authorities and anti-smuggling police under the General Administration of Customs.

In 2018, it was transferred to the People's Armed Police Force under the unified command of the Central Military Commission.

xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn