'Freedom of navigation' sailing in Straits provocative

The is no legal basis for or definition of "international waters" in international law, so the Taiwan Straits cannot be called international waters, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular news conference on June 13 in reply to a question by a Bloomberg journalist.

Wang was right, because "international waters" is not a defined term in international law. To varying degrees and depending on the location, all ocean waters are open, and in a country's territorial waters, ships of all countries enjoy the right of (mark the term) "innocent passage".

Some foreign media outlets have said that given the intensifying disputes between China and the United States on the Taiwan question, making clear the legal status of the Taiwan Straits will help both sides have a better understanding of reality and enable them to focus on the issues of importance during discussions. It will also set guardrails for Sino-US relations, especially on the Taiwan question, they said.