Bully Nations in Search of Natural Resources: The Unwelcomed Chinese Fishing Fleets

In 2008, a Russian nuclear sub planted a titanium flag under the North Pole, claiming all the undersea regions based on ridges that emanated from that spot. China began using similar ridges in the South and East China Seas to claim ownership and control of shipping lanes and resource-extraction rights there, going so far as the add massive new land mass to an island in the Spratley chain to house a military base, replete with a landing field. Chinese naval vessels and armed jet aircraft have repeatedly challenged foreign vessels and aircraft attempting to navigate these waters, particularly US Navy ships and jets in the Taiwanese area. Combined Russian and Chinese naval fleets have begun joint exploratory missions ins Arctic waters, reinforcing Russian claims to the developing (and defrosting) Northwest Passage. These have all been the stuff of headlines.

But on the less reproted back pages, China’s quest for foodstuffs, particularly since she no longer wishes to depend on imports from the United States, have made her invest heavily in emerging nations and agriculturally rich regions (like Brazil and productive regions in the African Great Rift Valley) with clear advantages and priorities for China to the products grown there. Because it happens so far from the US, there is another Chinese bully practice that simply “takes” whatever it wants from the fishing regions that have been longstanding offshore fishing grounds for local fisherman, often with vastly smaller boats. The US joins in protest… but does virtually nothing.

Massive Chinese fishing fleets, sometimes armed or escorted by Chinese military vessels ready to deploy force, range all over the world, preying on small nations heavily reliant on local fishing but unable to defend themselves against this Chinese incursion into their waters… simply by denying those nations’ rights to territorial waters. The locals are hapless against these massive fleets, seriously depleting their available catch; the call these Chinese fishing vessels “bully boats.” Writing for the October 26th Wall Street Journal, Ryan Dubé explains this pervasive Chinese practice: “For three decades, Francisco Chiroque’s livelihood has depended on the jumbo squid that flourish off this country’s Pacific coast in one of the world’s richest fishing grounds. This year, his catch has collapsed.

“Chiroque and the Peruvian fishing industry blame the hundreds of gigantic Chinese fishing ships patrolling the edge of Peru’s national waters. Peru’s squid catch is down 70% so far this year, which the fishing industry says is a result of the industrial-scale fishing that Chinese companies have brought to seas normally plied by individuals in small boats, sometimes called artisan fishermen… ‘They fish and fish, day and night,’ said Chiroque, 49 years old, the head of the squid-fisherman association in Paita, a city on Peru’s far northern Pacific coast that is home to its squid-fishing industry. ‘The plundering is awful.’” This is hardly a story solely about Peru. This PRC effort can be found in waters all around Southest Asia, South America, Africa and off islands where tiny nations can only look on in horrors. China routine ignores rulings from international bodies citing such predatory practices as unlawful. But using Peru as the example, the WSJ article continues:

“The woes of Peru’s squid fishermen mark the latest round of international tensions involving China’s overseas fishing fleet, by far the world’s largest. U.S. officials and conservationists say China’s thousands of industrial-size vessels endanger ecosystems and threaten fishing industries from Africa to Latin America… Overfishing has become a flashpoint of geopolitical friction between Beijing and the U.S., which has sided with countries such as Peru. The Biden administration has sanctioned Chinese-flagged ships for so-called illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, which the U.S. says has surpassed piracy as the leading global maritime-security threat…

“The first Chinese fleet of 22 ships arrived off the western coast of South America in 2001, traveling across the Pacific for jumbo squid, a voracious animal that can grow to nearly 10 feet over a lifespan of 12 to 18 months… Those ships caught 17,700 tons of squid that year, according to the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization, a New Zealand-based intergovernmental group that includes the U.S. and China and that oversees fisheries in the Pacific. Now, the Chinese fishing boats haul in some 500,000 tons of squid annually from those waters.

“The fleet has since grown to around 500 ships. They use bright lights to attract squid to the surface at night. From space, the ships look like a floating city. A mother ship transports the catch back to China. Other vessels provide fuel. One serves as a hospital for crew members, says Eloy Aroni, a fishing expert at Artisonal, a Peru-based organization that tracks the fleet.

“Satellite images show the fleet spends much of the year just outside the 200 nautical miles that are part of Peru’s maritime territory, hugging the border as it follows the squid north and south. .. Peru’s ships have little chance of competing. The squid move both inside and outside of Peru’s maritime waters, meaning that even if Chinese ships don’t enter Peruvian waters, their catch has repercussions for locals.” China knows how to use local governments against their people. $$$.

“The fishing industry says it has received little support from the government of President Dina Boluarte, who traveled to Beijing in June to deepen ties with China… Today, Chinese companies own some of Peru’s biggest copper mines, while others will control virtually all of the power distribution in the capital, Lima… In November, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is scheduled to inaugurate a Chinese-owned megaport in Peru during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit… Peru’s Production Ministry, which oversees the fishing industry, didn’t respond to an interview request. Minister Sergio González has played down the impact of China’s fishing fleet, publicly saying that the squid shortage has been caused by changes in the ocean triggered by the El Niño warm weather phenomenon. The population should bounce back next year, he said.

“Juan Carlos Riveros, a biologist who is the science director in Peru for Oceana, a Washington, D.C.-based conservation organization, said that while squid are susceptible to changing temperatures, overfishing is the culprit. Peru’s squid catches declined during a 2016 El Niño, but not as much as today… ‘In reality, what we are witnessing is a case of overfishing,’ he said.” WSJ. Russia and China believe the United States, mired in unending polarization with a strong vector towards isolationism, is unraveling into a weak nation that is losing political influence by the day.

I’m Peter Dekom, and that Russian and Chinese assessment of an unraveling, self-destructive, United States is not far from the truth… noting that in modern times of increasing American isolation have had a profound negative effect on our economy.