JuraLaw™, an imprint of TellerBooks™, is delighted to announce the publication of “China, Taiwan and the Crime of Aggression: An International Criminal Law Analysis of China’s Military Operations in the Indo-Pacific Region,” written by John Dotson, Brian C. Chao and Brian Zhang.
This volume examines China’s conduct in the Indo-Pacific region through the prism of the crime of aggression. It focuses on Chinese military operations and gray zone tactics, with a focus on the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, with a view to determine whether such operations involve a use of force that rises to the level of an armed attack for purposes of the crime of aggression.
While this study focuses on China’s conduct towards Taiwan, it also examines China’s conduct towards a range of other states in the Asia Pacific region, including the Philippines, Japan, South Korea and Australia, with a view to determine whether senior leaders of the People’s Republic of China could be held liable under international criminal law for the crime of aggression. After examining the historical context of Taiwan (the Republic of China) and the People’s Republic of China, the authors conclude that Taiwan fulfills the criteria for statehood under both the declaratory and constitutive theories of statehood under public international law and, therefore, that Taiwan could be a victim of the crime of aggression.
Following a detailed review of a range of military analyses, government investigations and think tank reports examining Chinese kinetic attacks and cyberattacks against Taiwan and neighboring states, this treatise concludes that the conduct of China’s senior leaders towards Taiwan and neighboring states meets the elements of the crime of aggression under international criminal law.
