China targeted for illegal fishing around the world
The Biden administration has expressed concern about illegal fishing by Chinese vessels, with the Chinese Communist Party leading an illegal, unreported and unregulated fishery with a fishing fleet of thousands of vessels around the globe.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, or IUFF, is a massive industry in which China is the largest player, according to rankings by the Global Initiative to Fight Transnational Organized Crime.
Thousands of Chinese fishing vessels, many of them subsidized by Beijing, fish in the territorial waters of countries in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America, causing the fish industry to deplete its resources and harming local economies. But Beijing denies the allegation.
“China is the largest country and she provides the most subsidies for harmful fishing around the globe,” said Michelle Kuluk, deputy director of marine policy at the World Wildlife Fund.
Last May, the Trump administration issued an executive order cracking down on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing IUFF and called on the international community to stand up to China’s illegal fishing.
The Biden Administration is likely to continue that effort, with officials telling the Voice of America that the administration sees cracking down on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing IUFF as a foreign policy imperative.
White House spokeswoman Jean Sharkey said, “This is an issue of overfishing in certain parts of the world, and it’s something that our national security team is certainly paying close attention to and keeping an eye on.”
Skirmishes are common as governments try to stop illegal fishing, including an incident late last year in which the Ecuadorian Navy opened fire on a Chinese fishing boat off the Galapagos Islands.
Other governments, including Indonesia, have taken punitive measures to catch and sink Chinese fishing boats.
The World Trade Organization has failed to meet a December 2020 deadline to reach an agreement on cutting IUUF subsidies provided by Beijing, for example.
Earlier this month, the WTO’s newly appointed director general pledged to push through the deal.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization, said, “It’s been 20 years, 20 years is enough, that’s my slogan, now we have to get it done.”
In 2019, more than 13 percent of U.S. imports of marine catch came from illegal IUUF, according to a March report from the U.S. International Trade Commission.
“The total amount of illegal catch coming into the U.S. is well over $2 billion,” said Kuluk, deputy director of marine policy at the World Wildlife Fund.
IUUF is also a human rights issue, and aid groups have documented examples of modern-day slavery, with workers receiving harsh conditions, low pay and lack of Food and water for months or even years at sea.
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