On China Coast Guard’s Law Enforcement Power At Sea

China Coast Guard which is affiliated to the Border Control Department of Ministry of Public Security and established in the Chinese People’s Armed Police border guards, as a part of the active forces leaded and administrated by the Ministry of Public Security, has become the main law enforcement force deployed by the Public Security at sea. But our country has yet to establish a mature and complete system of maritime law enforcement, coupled with the fact that China’s legal system on maritime law enforcement failed to clear the division of maritime law enforcement powers of the various departments, thus in practice, there often exist phenomena of enforcement overlaps, duplications and gaps between the maritime law enforcement agencies. The vague legislation and the unclear division of responsibilities lead to the frequent occurrence of enforcement power competition or random abandonment between maritime law enforcement agencies. According to the current various problems of China’s maritime law enforcement system, this article attempts to hold China Coast Guard’s law enforcement powers at sea as a entry point and hopes to make a slight contribution to the improvement of Chinese maritime law enforcement system by discussion on the property and authority of China Coast Guard and comparison between it and the other maritime law enforcement agencies.The first part focuses on some basic theoretical issues on China Coast Guard, such as its definition, legal attributes, and etc. Meanwhile this part briefly enumerates and describes the enforcement authority and contents given by Chinese relevant legal documents as well. The first part aims in laying a solid theoretical foundation for later discussion and deepening.In the second part, by the combination the two research methods: comparative analysis and case studies, the author makes a comparative analysis of the enforcement authority among China Coast Guard and other law enforcement agencies at sea (including the Public Security Organs on Land, the Marine and Fishery Administration) and at the same time, vividly illustrates the conflicts and disputes in the law enforcement authority among them. In the analysis of second part, the author focus on the comparison of the law enforcement power between China Coast Guard and the Public Security Organs on Land. The reason is that the author found that the vast majority of past relevant papers almost focused on the Comparison of China Coast Guard and the Marine and Fishery Administration. However, few papers make detailed analysis and discussion on China Coast Guard and the Public Security Organs on Land. Meanwhile, in order to make the discussion more convincing, the author also conducted an empirical research, therefore, the discussion and conclusions are based on author’s survey. These two points are the innovations compared to the other related papers.The third part which tightly connected to the second part, responses to the issues the second part involved and also frankly stated his views on the perfection of the China Coast Guard’s maritime enforcement powers. As far as the author is concerned, the two aspects attribute a lot to the solution of the issue above. The one is to give full play to the particular advantage of the China Coast Guard’s maritime law enforcement; the other one is to improve its law enforcement-related subsidiary system. China’s maritime administrative experience is not yet ripe at this stage. It’s not be considered that how to integrate the maritime law enforcement forces until we perfect the model of carrying out their duties and promoting comprehensive law enforcement integrated law enforcement", fully find out the problems and difficulties of maritime law enforcement in the new circumstances and gradually understand and grasp the mature experience of maritime law enforcement. At that time we can ensure that it will not bring about such a dilemma of new problems occurrence after solving old problems and promote the stable and rapid development of the marine business. However, the improvement of the China Coast Guard’s maritime enforcement powers is an essential part in the reform of Chinese maritime law enforcement system. At present, China Coast guard, as a branch of the executive power at sea of China’s Public Security, has played an essential role in Chinese coastline. Moreover, it always takes the most significance in the law enforcement at sea. In summary, this article aims to explore the status quo of enforcement powers of China Coast guard, deeply analyze the relevant law enforcement powers and put forward views and opinions and relevant suggestions of the improvement of Coast Guard’s enforcement powers, hoping to be helpful in the development of China’s maritime law enforcement.