Captained Chen Yu Guo, 50, watches his fisherman refit his boat from the bridge in front of a poster of Mao Zedong before heading back out to fishing grounds near the Spratly Islands, at the harbour in Tanmen, Hainan Island, China on April 7, 2016. (Adam Dean/For The Washington Post)
China is using its vast fishing fleet as the advance guard to press its expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, experts say. That is not only putting Beijing on a collision course with its Asian neighbors, but also introducing a degree of unpredictability that raises the risks of periodic crises.
In the past few weeks, tensions have flared with Indonesia, Malaysia and
“The Chinese authorities consider fishermen and fishing vessels important tools in expanding China’s presence and the country’s claims in the disputed waters,” said Zhang Hongzhou, an expert at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
“Fishermen are increasingly at the front line of the South China Sea disputes,” Zhang said, “and fishing incidents could trigger even bigger diplomatic and security tensions between China and regional countries.”
A fisherman does maintenance tasks during a refit of his boat, captained by Chen Yu Guo, 50, before heading back out to fishing grounds near the Spratly Islands, at the harbour in Tanmen, Hainan Island, China on April, 7, 2016. (Adam Dean/For The Washington Post)
Here, in the fishing port of Tanmen in the southern island of Hainan, 50-year-old captain Chen Yuguo was in the wheelhouse of his trawler last week, carrying out minor repairs after a six-week fishing trip to the disputed Spratly Islands.
A portrait of “Comrade” Mao Zedong hung in a place of honor behind him, alongside an expensive satellite navigation system supplied by the Chinese government. Chen said catches are much better in the Spratlys than in China’s depleted inshore waters, but the captain said he is also fulfilling his patriotic duty.
