BAIMAJING // The fishing fleet based in the tiny port town on Hainan island got everything from military training and subsidies to fuel and ice as China created an increasingly sophisticated fishing militia to sail into the disputed South China Sea.
The training and support included exercises at sea and requests to fishermen to gather information on foreign vessels, said provincial government officials, regional diplomats and fishing company executives.
“The maritime militia is expanding because of the country’s need for it, and because of the desire of the fishermen to engage in national service, protecting our country’s interests,” said an adviser to the Hainan government.
But the fishing militia also raised the risk of conflict with foreign navies in the waterway through which US$5 trillion (Dh18.4 trillion) of trade passes each year, diplomats and naval experts claimed.
The United States has been conducting sea and air patrols – including by two B-52 heavy bombers last November – near artificial islands that China is building in the disputed Spratly archipelago.
The US said in February that it would increase the “freedom of navigation” sail-bys around the disputed sea.
The city-level branches of the Chinese military provide basic military training to fishermen, according to the adviser.
The branches are overseen by the military and Communist Party authorities in charge of militia operations nationwide.
The training encompasses search-and-rescue operations, contending with disasters at sea, and safeguarding Chinese sovereignty, said the adviser, who focused on the South China Sea.
The training, which included exercises at sea, took place between May and August and the government paid fishermen for participating, he said.
Government subsidies encouraged fishermen to use heavier vessels with steel – as opposed to wooden – hulls.
The government had also provided global positioning satellite equipment for at least 50,000 vessels, enabling them to contact the Chinese coastguard in maritime emergencies, including encounters with foreign ships, said industry executives.
Several Hainan fishermen and diplomats said some vessels were fitted with small arms.
When “a particular mission in safeguarding sovereignty” comes up, government authorities will coordinate with the fishing militia, according to the adviser, asking them to gather information on the activities of foreign vessels at sea.
That coordination was evident in March, when Indonesia tried to detain a Chinese fishing vessel for fishing near its Natuna Islands in the South China Sea. A Chinese coastguard vessel quickly intervened to prevent the Indonesian navy from towing away the fishing boat, setting off a diplomatic row.
Beijing does not claim the Natunas but said the boats were in “traditional Chinese fishing grounds”.
China claimed almost all of the South China Sea. The Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Brunei have conflicting claims over the islets and atolls that constitute the Spratly archipelago and its rich fishing grounds.
State-controlled fishing companies dominate the fleets that go regularly to the Spratly Islands and are recipients of much of the militia training and subsidies, according to industry sources.
China has by far the world’s biggest fish industry, but depleted fishery resources close to China’s shores had made fishing in disputed waters an economic necessity, said fishermen and industry executives.
State-owned Hainan South China Sea Modern Fishery Group Company said it was “both military and commercial, both soldiers and civilians”. One of its aims, the company said, was to let the “Chinese flag fly” over the Spratly Islands.
“Defending sovereignty is primarily the government’s concern,” said Ye Ning, the company’s general manager. “But of course, regular folks being able to fish in their own countries’ waters should be the norm. That goes for us, too.”
The company said it provided fuel, water, and ice to fishermen who sail to the Spratly Islands, and then bought fish from them when they returned.
“It has become a lot more risky to do this with all kinds of foreign boats out there,” said Huang Jing, a local fisherman in the sleepy port town of Baimajing, where a line of steel-hulled fishing trawlers stretched as far as the eye can see.
“But China is strong now. I trust the government to protect us.”
Chen Rishen, chairman of Hainan Jianghai Group, said his private but state subsidised company dispatched large fleets of steel-hulled trawlers weighing hundreds of tonnes to fish near the Spratly Islands.
They usually go for months at a time, primarily for commercial reasons.
“If some foreign fishing boats infringe on our territory and try to prevent us from fishing there, then we’re put in the role of safeguarding sovereignty,” he said in Haikou, the provincial capital of Hainan.
China does not use its fishing fleet to help establish sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, said a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman. “This kind of situation does not exist,” he said.
China had taken measures to ensure that the fishing fleets conduct business legally, he said last month.
Mr Chen said his fishermen stop at Woody Island in the Paracel Islands, where China recently installed surface-to-air missiles, to refuel and communicate with Chinese coastguard vessels.
They were looking forward to using similar facilities that China was developing in the Spratly Islands, he said.
China has been pouring sand from the seabed onto seven reefs to create artificial islands in the Spratly Islands. So far, it has built one airstrip, with two more under construction on them, with re-fuelling and storage facilities.
“This all points to the need for establishing agreed protocols for ensuring clear and effective communications between civilian and maritime law enforcement vessels of different countries operating in the area,” said Michael Vatikiotis, Asia director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, which is helping claimant states to design such confidence-building measures.
A regional agreement on communications and procedures when rival navies meet at sea applied only to naval ships and other military vessels, he said.
* Reuters