[return0]

> It’s something that’s granted by others. Sometimes it’s through agreement. Other times it’s by fear of force.

Thailand has signed the UN law of the sea and set its territorial claim at 12 miles, so it knows that its territory ends at 12 miles. They are disrespecting their contract by performing hostile operations in international waters. If anything, the other signatories to UNCLOS should complain.

> The Contiguous Zone is an intermediary zone between the territorial sea and the high seas extending enforcement jurisdiction of the coastal state to a maximum of 24 nautical miles from baselines for the purposes of preventing or punishing violations of customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary (and thus residual national security) legislation.

https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/Law-of-the-Sea-Me...

@yongjik: china (the country) has no legal basis to extend its sovereignity there. But i guess it can send a ship and station it there , and the us could not lawfully capture it unless certain conditions were met. The US is not a signatory to UNCLOS so this is hypothetical. I am also sure the US and russia are frequent visitors of each other from international waters near Alaska.

[yongjik]

This interpretation of international laws doesn't pass sniff test, and frankly on the same level as sovereign citizen movement. If China builds a floating house 14 miles from San Francisco and declares it as Chinese territory, do you think the US will respect that?

[trickstra]

If US claimed only 12 miles off the coast, then under what interpretation of any law would they just come and take it and charge the occupants with treason? And we are not talking about declaring any Chinese territory, don't put up a strawman.

[jonathankoren]

I really think you should read up on the history of the Republic of Minerva. Essentially, Tonga got the other South Pacific countries together, told them what they’re going to do, and then did it. You can do this when you’re a recognized sovereign country. No one cares about outlaws.