In 1958, the situation in the Taiwan Strait was tense, ** look at the telegrams from the front! Let them know that we are not afraid! ”
The recent visit of the United States to Taiwan has had a serious impact on China's sovereignty.
Soon after, however, an urgent report came from the front that the U.S. Seventh Fleet had intervened at this time and stopped near our waters.
After learning the news, ** was extremely angry, when does China's internal affairs need to be intervened by the United States? It's just too deceitful.
However, once it sends troops at this time, the United States is bound to seize the opportunity to immediately make a big splash in the international community, declaring: This is the high seas, and China has no right to interfere.
For this reason, an emergency meeting was held, but I didn't expect a sentence at the meeting to become an international convention in the future, and to this day, it is still safeguarding China's interests.
What exactly was said?
In 1949, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, ** has been looking forward to liberating Taiwan, but the frequent intervention of the United States has had a serious impact on the recovery of the Taiwan version.
In 1958, due to the United States' brazen visit to Taiwan in disregard of China's sovereignty, ** immediately ordered a fierce artillery battle in the Kinmen area.
As a result, when the two sides were fighting, the US Seventh Fleet, which had been roaming the Taiwan Strait, suddenly intervened sideways and was ready to intervene in the battle between the two sides.
However, if China rashly dispatched troops, it would inevitably be seized by the United States, because at that time, the internationally recognized territorial sea line was within three nautical miles of the coast, and the United States did not enter this range, so China had no legitimate reason to counterattack them.
How is China's territorial waters defined? In fact, there was no clear statement at that time, and the 3 nautical mile statement was only adopted by the United States and Britain and other countries, and there are still many countries in the world that do not use this method.
The total length of China's mainland coastline and island coastline has reached 3More than 20,000 km.
Isn't such a vast coastline more like a lamb to the slaughter if it does not have a defined territorial sea scope and does not have enough strength to defend against foreign enemies?
At this time, *** has already realized that the territorial sea line must be demarcated, otherwise the United States will only wreak havoc near China more unscrupulously.
However, there has never been a clear way to delineate China's coastline, and even the way it is used is similar to that of Britain and the United States.
1864, that is, the last years of the Qing Dynasty, was the first time when China began to define the territorial sea line.
At that time, foreign merchant ships seized the boats of Chinese fishermen at the wharf of our country without permission, and Qing ** counterattacked them, thus putting forward the concept of "territorial waters".
It's just that at that time, the Qing Dynasty itself was difficult to protect, and its legal knowledge of territorial waters was even less understood, so it never clearly demarcated the territorial sea line.
In 1931, as the ambitions of the Japanese army gradually became prominent, and the large-scale entry into China's territory aroused a high degree of vigilance in China, and the people finally promulgated China's first territorial sea decree, and China's sea areas had a clear scope.
It's just that at that time, the people ** were relatively close to the United States and Britain and other countries, so the demarcated territorial sea line was also 3 nautical miles, which was basically no different from the United States and Britain and other countries, and naturally no one raised any objections to this.
Due to his lack of experience, ** decided that this matter could not be decided easily, so he immediately wrote several letters and sent them.
On August 22, a special plane landed at Beidaihe Airport.
Qiao Guanhua, a staff member of China's ***, and Ni Zheng, a famous jurist, stepped off the plane and, under the leadership of the staff, went straight to ***'s residence.
At this time, an important meeting that is the lifeblood of the country is taking place here.
When I arrived at the meeting, the venue was already full of people, and they were discussing something with them.
Seeing them coming, he hurriedly greeted: "You have just arrived, I was about to ask you how the international territorial sea line is divided, and what do you think?" ”
As a jurist who has participated in the Tokyo negotiations, Ni Zheng has the most say in this regard, and he first explained the current internationally accepted way of confirming the territorial sea line, which is the method of the United States and Britain and other countries mentioned above.
But *** shook his head and did not approve of such a demarcation method.
The reason why he denied the delimitation of the three nautical miles is, first, because the three nautical miles do not completely divide the Bohai Sea at all, so I am afraid that the United States will make a big fuss about the conflict between the national border and the territorial sea line, and second, because the artillery range of the United States and other Western countries has already exceeded three nautical miles.
It is completely unreasonable to put yourself within the range of the enemy's artillery.
Therefore, *** expressed the hope that the territorial sea line could be redrawn, and this distance would be much more than 3 nautical miles.
Ni Zheng also understands the idea of ***, because the reason why Britain and the United States and other countries set the territorial sea line at 3 nautical miles is that they want to rely on their strong maritime military power to plunder the resources on the sea.
Obviously, this is not in line with China's national conditions.
In fact, in addition to the United States and Britain and other countries, there were many countries in the international community at that time that were opposed to the distance of 3 nautical miles, and because there was no clear international law, the distance of some countries was set at 6 nautical miles, and some were set at 12 nautical miles.
Developing countries do not have naval strength comparable to that of the United States and Britain, so most of the time, the territorial waters of developing countries will be divided into more than 12 nautical miles.
After hearing the explanation of Ni Zheng and others, ** nodded, and agreed with the 12 nautical mile plan.
Since there was no clear designation at the time, there was no clear outcome from the meeting.
Ten days later, ** convened a political conference again, and invited two other jurists, Liu Zerong and Zhou Kunsheng.
At the beginning of the meeting, ** took the initiative to ask again: "What do you think about the distance division of our country's territorial sea line?" ”
The two jurists only considered the general international law and did not take into account the situation in China, so they agreed that the 3 nautical mile scheme should be followed.
**Noncommittal, but another question is asked: "What is the range of our artillery?" ”
Chairman, it is no problem for our artillery to hit Kinmen and more than 12 nautical miles! ”
Hearing this, ** no longer hesitated, and directly made a final decision: "Then set the territorial sea line at 12 nautical miles, as long as it is within our firing range, it is our China's territorial waters, and if you want to pass from here, you must first ask our artillery if you agree or not." ”
Soon, China announced to the outside world that the territorial waters of the People's Republic of China are 12 nautical miles, and any ship that enters China's territorial waters will be expelled by China.
The news quickly spread around the world, shocking countries such as the United States and Britain, who had no idea that one day China would make changes in its territorial waters.
With China making statements directly in the international arena, it is too late to say anything at this point, and the US Seventh Fleet can no longer swagger on the battlefield between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and China's internal affairs should be left to us to settle by ourselves.
On the same day that the announcement was issued, a new round of artillery battles began, and after the territorial sea line was determined, our troops were more confident in their operations.
At this time, the United States is eager to try, and they do not believe at all that China, which does not even have complete naval equipment, can compete with them.
The United States has not stopped interfering in China's internal affairs, trying to make China's territorial sea statement a joke.
After the shelling resumed, a joint fleet of the United States and the Kuomintang suddenly broke into the Kinmen area, and our investigators clearly saw that the three Kuomintang ships carrying a large amount of supplies were carrying them to the Kinmen area, while the US fleet was parked not far away to provide them with cover.
If the cannon is rashly fired at this time, I am afraid that it will directly cause a dispute between China and the United States.
The commander couldn't make up his mind for a while, so he reported the situation to ***
**Immediately ordered: Fight, fight Chiang's ship and not hit the US ship, if the US ship is against us**, then follow the order.
Taking advantage of the fact that the Kuomintang had not yet completed the unloading, our army immediately turned the direction and launched a fierce artillery bombardment on the opposite side, and the Kuomintang was somewhat unable to parry, obviously they did not expect that ** would order an attack on them at this time.
They hurriedly launched a counterattack, but at this time, a shell suddenly landed near the supply ship, causing several personnel to **.
They had no choice but to retreat urgently.
After suffering this loss, the United States and the Kuomintang were not reconciled, and the next day they took the initiative to attack, and at this time our country became famous.
After announcing the scope of its territorial waters, the United States is still swaggering in its activities in China's waters, which is a serious contempt for China's sovereignty.
This time, *** showed no mercy and directly ordered the bombing of the US landing ship.
At this time, a shell happened to fall on the ammunition loaded by the "Merlot", causing the ** to sink on the spot, and the other ships saw this, and fled outside in a panic.
The United States finally reacted, and the Chinese had endured it to the extreme, and they immediately turned around and wanted to leave the seas, leaving the Kuomintang army alone to face these messes.
In this shelling of Kinmen, although the United States had an arrogant attitude and repeatedly entered China's waters, it did not even fail to fire a single shot in the face of China's bombing.
The attitude of fleeing in a hurry shows that they have recognized the 12-nautical-mile territorial sea line demarcated by China, although in the international arena, they have clearly carried out the territorial sea line proposed by China, but 12 nautical miles is not a precedent for China, and China has not violated any international conventions and has not violated the interests of other countries, so why not?
Therefore, even if the United States and other countries are very dissatisfied with this, they can only accept it in the end.
With the development of modern military technology, many countries have realized that 3 nautical miles is no longer a safe territorial waters, and they have followed China's example and changed their territorial sea line to 12 nautical miles.
** sentence has inadvertently become an internationally recognized principle, which is the foresight of the great man.
It is precisely because of *** that China can develop so strongly!