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NYPD: Cop from LI Charged with Being Chinese Agent Released on Bail  (Robert E. Kessler, New York Daily News)
A New York City police officer from Williston Park charged with being an agent of the People’s Republic of China was released on $2 million bond Wednesday from a federal jail after contracting the coronavirus.
Baimadajie Angwang, 33, a naturalized citizen from Tibet, had been held in the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since he was arrested four months ago.
A federal magistrate on Tuesday had ordered Angwang’s release on Wednesday, as soon as he was fitted with an electronic ankle monitoring device.

Water Wars: Chinese Military Takes Aim While Biden’s China Strategy Takes Shape  (Sean Quirk, Lawfare)
The U.S. and Chinese militaries have continued to confront one another near Taiwan and in the South China Sea in the early weeks of the Biden administration. Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft conducted a simulated strike against a U.S. aircraft carrier in January 2021, while Taiwan has experienced near-daily incursions into its airspace by Chinese aircraft. The U.S. Navy’s persistent operations in the South China Sea and diplomatic pronouncements from senior U.S. officials indicate that the Biden administration is largely staying the course in confronting Chinese intimidation in the region. Yet, unlike the Trump administration, Biden and his team appear keen to bring U.S. allies alongside to form a “united front” on military, economic and diplomatic dimensions of the U.S.-China relationship.

China’s New Coast Guard Law and Implications for Maritime Security in the East and South China Seas  (Shigeki Sakamoto, Lawfare)
In the South China Sea, there have been instances of China mobilizing fishing boats and other vessels to conduct demonstrations in territorial disputes and maritime boundary disputes. A lot of attention is currently being paid to the legal status of such fishing boats when they are armed and deployed in armed conflict. One example of China’s use of fishing fleets, known as maritime militias, in armed conflict is the 1974 incident between China and South Vietnam over the Paracel Islands. Such incidents are likely to occur in the Senkaku Islands as well. 
A more realistic scenario, however, is that in peacetime, maritime militias will secretly land on the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, fly the Chinese flag and refuse to comply with the JCG’s request to leave. (Cont.)