China's New Maritime Legal Enforcement Strategy in the South China Sea: Legal Warfare and an Emerging Contest Over Norms at Sea

China has over the past several years begun to implement a new Maritime Law Enforcement (MLE) strategy in the South China Sea. This new MLE strategy utilizes vessels from China's rapidly expanding MLE agencies, reinforced by PLA naval and other military assets, to assert the country's claims against other Southeast Asian claimants, particularly Vietnam and the Philippines. A noticeably dramatic increase in the number of incidents at sea in disputed areas has occurred alongside the implementation of this new strategy, escalating tensions to dangerous levels. China's MLE strategy is an evolution in thinking from previous PLA doctrine, and is in many ways the operationalized extension of concepts such as 'legal warfare'. The employment of the strategy not only risks upsetting China's relations with its neighbouring countries, but may also be suggestive of an emerging contest between China and the US over international norms at sea.