Chairman, Fujian Frontline Emergency Call! ”
In September 1958, the artillery bombardment of Kinmen was in full swing, but I did not expect that just now, the front-line troops of the People's Liberation Army in Fujian Province once again opened fire on the remnants of the Kuomintang stationed on Kinmen IslandAs a result, the U.S. Seventh Fleet thwarted from it.
"Americans deceive people too much! ”
Everyone present was furious, and after seeing it, he was even more furious and said, how can the internal affairs of the Taiwan Strait be controlled by others?
He urgently convened a meeting of the Military Commission, and a sentence at the meeting directly set the tone of China's territorial waters, and even a few years later, this sentence became an international convention.
What exactly was said?
In August 1958, the situation in the Taiwan Strait escalated again.
With the verbal support of the United States, Chiang Kai-shek **held high the banner of the mainland and ordered the remnants of the Kuomintang stationed on Kinmen Island to launch a series of artillery attacks on the coastal villages of Fujian, killing and wounding many innocent civilians.
At the beginning, he put the overall situation first, wanted to influence Chiang Kai-shek with the Huairou policy, and never wanted the other side to mistakenly think that the mainland's national defense strength was limited, so he intensified his provocation against the PLA Fujian coastal troops, and even bombarded military bases, deliberately expanding the situation.
On August 23, with the first order, the front-line troops of the People's Liberation Army decided to counterattack, mobilize artillery explosives, and launch a punitive artillery bombardment on Kinmen Island.
In an instant, thick smoke billowed on the sea, flames soared into the sky, and bombs rained down on Kinmen, and in just two hours, the Taiwanese guards around Kinmen Island were damaged one after another, and a large number of houses and infrastructure on the island collapsed and collapsed.
According to Taiwan's statistics after the incident, the PLA killed more than 600 Taiwan troops in this round of shelling.
The shelling continued on the 24th, and the PLA wounded one after another, sinking one Taiwan transport ship and one of them, completely smashing the backbone of the garrison in Kinmen.
The bombardment of Kinmen for two consecutive days has caused Taiwan to lose many warships and seriously damage its military strength. Chiang Kai-shek, who was the one who instigated the incident, was suddenly worried that the mainland would really make a fake show and launch an operation to recover Taiwan, so he could not wait to apply for assistance from the US troops stationed in Taiwan.
Naturally, it was impossible for the US military to do anything, so the mainland recovered Taiwan, so it sent the Seventh Fleet to approach the median line of the Taiwan Strait, and at the same time cruised near China's territorial sea county within three nautical miles.
Once the Chinese side raised this issue, the US side arrogantly stated that the three-nautical-mile territorial sea line is an international convention, and everything beyond the three-nautical-mile is on the high seas, and the normal navigation of the US ship on the high seas and the carrying out of scientific research missions are not within China's condemnation and jurisdiction.
In a word, choke on the ** side and ***
That night, the Fujian border guards reported the matter in the form of an urgent secret telegram, and they were furious after learning about the cause and effect in the study.
The dignified Chinese must not be choked by the territorial sea line of these three nautical miles!
Immediately afterwards, he convened a meeting of the members of the ** Military Commission in Zhongnanhai, and at the same time asked *** Qiao Guanhua to invite Ni Zheng and two international law experts over.
Ni Zheng had previously represented China in the Tokyo Trial, and he knew a lot about international law and the international law of the sea.
As soon as they met, I asked him: How does international law regulate the territorial sea?
Ni Zheng was stunned for a moment when asked, and answered truthfully: "The United States, Britain and France supported the three-nautical-mile territorial sea line, and in 1931, Chiang Kai-shek's people also issued a decree to recognize it. ”
He spread out a huge map of China in front of him, dotted it in three places, and asked, "What if I had to change it all over again?" ”
Ni Zheng was enlightened in an instant.
The three places are Beijing, the Bohai Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
As the capital of the country and the economic and political center, Beijing is actually only 100 kilometers away from the coastline, and if the international practice formulated by the United States, Britain, and France is followed, the territorial waters of all countries in the world are only counted within three nautical miles, and the ships of all countries of all sizes will be cruising in the waters east of Beijing, and a missile fired at close range may be able to smash into Tiananmen Square, which will undoubtedly pose a huge threat to the dignity of the country and expose the country's gateway to danger at all times.
Look at the Bohai region.
Since ancient times, Bohai Bay is China's inland sea, coastal Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Shandong provinces and cities fishermen salvage operations in this place, from Liaoning to Shandong material transportation does not have to go through the inland, from the Bohai Sea shipping greatly reduces the transportation time and cost, and since the founding of New China, the Bohai Bay strategic location and military development prospects attach great importance to the intention to build a naval base or actual combat exercise base with the East China Sea Fleet.
However, the distance between the northern and southern corners of the Bohai Sea is 222 nautical miles, if calculated according to the requirements of the United States, Britain, France and other countries of three nautical miles, then the Bohai Bay will no longer be China's inland sea, of which 16 nautical miles in the middle of the north and south belong to the high sea, and ships of any country can pass through this place, so that not only disrupted the military plan, but also seriously affected the communication between Liaoning and Shandong provinces, as well as the national defense and security of provinces and cities along the Bohai Bay.
Finally, there is Taiwan, and the reason why the US military dares to intervene in the Kinmen shelling issue with such fanfare is that it relies on the so-called three-nautical-mile territorial sea line, while swaggering to send ** through the Taiwan Strait, and on the other hand, exerting pressure on the mainland from the left and right sides of the island of Taiwan.
It's really playing with the rules to the fullest!
Ni Zheng looked at ***'s increasingly aggressive eyes, and replied in a low voice: "The international convention does not clearly stipulate that this international practice within three nautical miles is only formulated by developed countries, in fact, many developing countries have opinions on this. ”
Before the 20th century, the international community generally had no concept of territorial waters, and if a country had a strong coastal defense force, there would be no other countries that dared to stay near the coastline, and even fishermen from other countries did not dare to cross the border to fish.
King Felipe II of Spain once said that standing on the coast, as far as the eye can see, is the sea of Spain.Although this sentence has been criticized as arrogant by the monarchs of many countries, it is also a rule that all countries have tacitly accepted since the Age of Discovery.
It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the capitalist countries divided the world, put forward the concept of territorial sea for the first time at the International Hague Conference, and advocated that sovereign states should have rights and interests in territorial waters
After discussions between China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, everyone tentatively decided that three nautical miles is the territorial sea line, but in fact this is nothing more than a game of wishful thinking on the part of the developed countries, and China has no choice but to be coerced into it, and other developing countries have no chance to oppose it.
The reason why the developed countries support the territorial waters of the three nautical miles is that they have a large number of troops and a strong coastal defense strength.
Although nominally it is said that the sea is three nautical miles, as long as they arrange a circle of artillery around the coast, no country's ** dares to really get close to the three nautical miles, and how wide the territorial sea is at that time depends on their words.
However, once this so-called international rule is in place, developed countries can use this as an excuse to approach other developing countries and openly plunder marine resources beyond three nautical miles, thus deterring the coastal areas of developing countries at all times.
After learning about the above situation from Ni Zheng, he immediately held a meeting with the members of the Military Commission who were present.
At the conference, ** proposed for the first time that the territorial sea line should be pushed outward, at least the Bohai Bay should be encircled as an inland sea.
As soon as this remark came out, it was immediately opposed by two experts in international law.
They believe that since the three-nautical-mile rule was formulated by Britain, France, the United States, and other countries, it will inevitably conform to its maritime interests, and once China breaks it, it will become the target of public criticism; now that the situation in the Taiwan Strait is unpredictable, it is not a wise move for China to go head-to-head with the United States at this time.
Of course, there was another part of the people who supported the idea, and the two sides immediately started a heated discussion.
Standing silently on the side, listening to the more noisy everyone became, he suddenly interrupted and asked: The range of our coastal artillery can hit ** at most?
One of the commissioners replied in a loud voice: 12 nautical miles!
After listening, he clapped his hands and said: Okay! It's set at 12 nautical miles, and our artillery hits ** and it is set at **!One sentence was deafening and set the tone for China's territorial waters and rights and interests thereafter.
On September 4, 1958, China** officially opened its territorial sea line to 12 nautical miles, within 12 nautical miles, and no national ship was allowed to cross the line without a note.
As soon as the news came out, countries around the world were in an uproar.
This is equivalent to China openly arguing with the United States, Britain, France, and other countries, openly refuting their three-nautical-mile rule, and then the United States and Western countries intend to give China a little color.
The U.S. military immediately took action and sent a large number of ** and *** to the Taiwan Strait to instigate Chiang Kai-shek to openly oppose the mainland, and a war in the Taiwan Strait was about to break out.
The US-Chiang coalition dispatched dozens of ships, which seemed to be huge, but he understood at a glance that the United States was using Chiang Kai-shek as a gunman, so he ordered the Fujian border guards: "Only hit Chiang's ships, not US ships." ”
At the same time, inform the United States in the international community that as long as it does not enter China's 12-nautical-mile territorial waters, China will never open fire on the US military, but if the US military crosses the line, China will not be polite!
At first, the United States thought that China was bluffing and crossed 12 nautical miles with Chiang Kai-shek's army, but the PLA did not say a word, set up hundreds of cannons and bombarded the opposite side, and in a moment many ** ships were injured, and the US troops were so frightened that they retreated again and again, and retreated directly to the accident on the 12th.
And so it turned out to be a magical scene. When the US troops retreated to a distance of 12 nautical miles, the Chinese People's Liberation Army immediately stopped firing, and the US troops did not give up and tried again; as soon as the bow of the ship crossed 12 nautical miles, it was hit head-on by a bomb on the shore, so it had to shrink its head again.
After repeating this several times, the U.S. military only dared to verbally support Chiang Kai-shek, or escort the Kuomintang on the left and right beyond the 12-nautical-mile line, but since then the U.S. military has never dared to cross the 12-nautical-mile line, indirectly acknowledging China's decision.
However, what people did not expect was that more than ten years later, the international redefinition of maritime rights and interests, after the first of many countries, was finally determined in the newly adopted international convention, and within 12 nautical miles is the territorial sea.
** One sentence not only solved the urgent need of shelling Kinmen at that time, turned Bohai Bay into an inland sea, further expanded China's territorial waters, and consolidated China's coastal defense, but also protected the maritime rights and interests of other developing countries and blessed future generations.