The Ecuadorian Navy spies on a fishing vessel in a fleet of mostly Communist Chinese flagged fishing boats in the Pacific waters off the Galapagos Islands. (Aug. 7, 2020)
According to the U.S. news website Axios, the United States intends to align with South American countries to form a multilateral alliance to jointly combat the ecological havoc caused by China’s massive ocean-going fishing vessels overfishing off its coasts and in global waters, as well as unfair commercial competition and forced labor, according to recent revelations.
Observers say the future formation of this U.S.-led alliance, if successful, would be another step up in the fight against China’s offshore fisheries engaging in “illegal, unnotified and unregulated (IUU)” fishing practices, following the alliance of four South American countries including Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in November last year.
Axios quoted an unnamed senior administration official as saying that several units across the U.S. government, including the State Department, Coast Guard, Office of Naval Intelligence and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “are reviewing this (coalition) proposal in light of President (Biden’s) stated priorities, which include deepening cooperation with allies and partners to work together against our (U.S.) economic and national security interests. U.S.) economic and national security challenges.”
U.S. to Form Coalition to Resist China’s Offshore Fisheries
The report said the U.S. government believes that such an alliance “should be welcomed by South American countries to join forces to pressure China to strictly enforce fishing standards.” However, the U.S. government is also concerned that its “one-sided pressure could trigger a Chinese backlash and reciprocal counter-sanctions against the United States,” just as the Chinese Communist Party passed a new law in retaliation for U.S. sanctions against several Chinese technology companies.
In response, the Voice of America asked White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki for confirmation. While not directly naming China, Psaki said, “This is a challenge and an issue that we’re watching closely, which is the issue of overfishing in some of the world’s waters. Our national security team is certainly looking at and tracking this issue closely.”
Blake Earle, an assistant professor of humanities at Texas A&M University, said, “It’s a challenge and a problem that we’re watching closely, that is, overfishing in some of the world’s waters. Blake Earle (Photo courtesy of Blake Earle) Earle)
Texas A&M University Assistant Professor of Humanities Blake Earle In an interview with the Voice of America, Blake Earle said he believes that the initiative of such an alliance should be “quite feasible” from the perspective of “political alliance” because the United States has always played an important role in international fisheries-related regulatory organizations. The willingness of South American countries to participate should also be high, especially countries such as Ecuador, which have long complained about the plundering of their coastal fisheries by Chinese fishing vessels and wish to resist.
However, he also warned that from a practical point of view, it would be “extremely difficult” to effectively monitor and regulate the operations of thousands of fishing vessels in a vast area. As a result, he said, the initiative may be difficult to implement. In particular, China’s willingness to cooperate is not high as its ocean-going fishing vessels continue to grow in size in the face of growing international condemnation and accusations.
High Seas Monitoring Vessel Operations Difficult
If China (the government) does not cooperate with such initiatives and does not actively combat illegal fishing, it means that (countries can only) intensify patrols of commercially valuable fishing grounds,” said Professor Earle. However, the vastness of the sea is unimaginable. Therefore, the U.S. and other countries in this initiative coalition would have to invest a lot of naval and coast guard fleets in order to have the ability to patrol these waters more intensively, find the illegal fishing vessels, and bring them to justice.”
Professor Earle wrote the article “The US-China fight over fishing is really about world domination.
He argues that, in the light of history, China may well be following the example of the United States in the past, using its massive fishing vessels to pursue diplomatic objectives and expand its international influence abroad. In particular, he writes, the United States used so-called “fisheries diplomacy” to create an international order friendly to the United States and to make international alliances against the Soviet Union during the post-World War II and post-1950s Cold War periods. At the time, the U.S. provided generous subsidies for fishing vessels to allied countries, such as the Japanese fleet. The United States also offered preferential tariffs to strategically important Iceland to make its cod exports to the United States more cost-competitive. It’s all “fisheries politics,” he says. In this context, he believes this is why the U.S. sees China’s offshore fisheries as a major threat, and perhaps one reason why the Chinese Communist Party has not shown the political will to end illegal fishing by its offshore fleet, based on the political and economic objectives behind it.
It’s not just about fishing,” Professor Earle said. We can’t look at fishing separately from other purposes such as politics and economics. Learning from history, many countries will not hesitate to use fisheries to achieve other larger and more important geopolitical and economic goals …… China is no exception.”
Predatory Fishing
Compared to the U.S. ocean-going fleet of less than 300 vessels, international organizations estimate that China’s ocean-going fleet is the largest in the world, with as many as 17,000 vessels, “fishing in a net” in all waters of the world, engaging in predatory fishing, and notoriously trespassing on illegal fishing practices in the exclusive economic zones of many countries within 200 miles In addition, Chinese vessels are also rumored to be involved in illegal fishing activities.
In 2017, more than 20 Chinese crew members were caught by Ecuador illegally fishing for conservation sharks off the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. thousands of sharks. The Chinese crew members and ship owners were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to four years and high fines of nearly US$5 million in Ecuador.
The Ecuadorian Navy monitors a fleet of fishing vessels, mostly flying the flag of the Chinese Communist Party, in the Pacific Ocean off the Galapagos Islands. (Aug. 7, 2020)
In response to China’s rampant IUU fishing, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly and loudly accused China of “predatory fishing,” saying, “Beijing’s actions have led to a degradation of the marine environment and it is time for China to stop its illegal fishing practices and undermine its fisheries jurisdiction. “
China’s three vessels have many problems
In an interview with the Voice of America, Lee Kuan-ting, director general of the Taiwan Tuna Association in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, said the actual situation observed by the crews of Taiwan’s ocean-going fishing vessels in the high seas differs from what Communist Party officials and fishing associations claim is legal fishing.
He said that there are too many illegal vessels in China, the so-called “three no’s”, operating in the high seas, and many of them belong to old wooden boats, iron-hulled boats, and even early double trawlers. The indiscriminate fishing patterns of such vessels help the catch, but they are too harmful to marine resources or fish spawning grounds, and are already the types of vessels that countries actively want to eliminate.
Generally speaking, he said, Chinese vessels are parked around the fishing grounds very early, waiting for the fish season to begin. For example, around Japan, they often go to the continental shelf, or even invade the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone or to catch bottom-dwelling fish species, giving the Japanese government a headache, and the Chinese fleet is so large that it is rumored that it is often accompanied by maritime militia escort, and “can’t be driven away”. In addition, Lee Kuan Ting said, according to the Taiwan crew relayed that many of these Chinese fleet through small boats, “sea transfer (transshipment)”, the ship’s catch in batches near the resale to other ports, so the Chinese fleet does not need to enter the port to unload, but also to avoid the labor and other inspections or the amount of catch The Chinese fleet does not need to enter the port to unload the cargo, and can avoid labor and other inspections or quota control. Although “trans-shipment at sea” is not illegal, it is often abused as a way to “launder” illegally caught fish, so international conservation groups have called on countries to ban this mode of operation for years.
In addition to the problem of illegal fishing, Li Guanting said that China has in recent years regarded the catch as a strategic material, so it has poured the country’s strength in supporting ocean-going fishing vessels. For example, oil for fishing boats and the price of the catch are subsidized by the government, which leads to unfair commercial competition among countries’ fisheries. And as China’s power grows, he said, it has frequently used its diplomatic power to cooperate with many countries in recent years to “seize” fishing rights so that Chinese fishing vessels can legally enter the fishing grounds of their neighbors.
China uses diplomatic power to seize fishing rights
For example, he said, Kiribati, a Pacific island nation consisting of 33 islands, has rich fishing resources in its surrounding waters and is one of the largest fishing grounds in the world. Kiribati originally signed a fisheries cooperation agreement with Taiwan, but after being dug out of the diplomatic wall by China in 2019, with the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, China has replaced Taiwan as Kiribati’s fisheries partner, enjoying fishing rights in the local fishing industry, which is very unfair to small countries such as Taiwan’s fishing industry.
Chinese fishing companies can operate over there with the licenses of these so-called fishing boats,” said Lee Kuan Ting. In other places, there is a similar situation where the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs will help their operators to find overseas fishing grounds, and then send the fishing boats to work there.”
Li Guanting believes that China’s fishing industry is too large, the registration of approved vessels is not transparent, there are not a small number of black, and there are many ports in China, it is not easy to monitor. In addition, the personnel size of the central fisheries unit is not large, and it is difficult to effectively implement all management policies and orders after they have been delegated from the central government to the local level.
Both Lee and Steve Trent, CEO of the Environmental Justice Foundation, agree that China has actively amended its laws in recent years to demonstrate its determination to crack down on illegal fishing. For example, China amended its fisheries law last April to establish a comprehensive system and measures to manage offshore fisheries, including mandatory vessel monitoring, high seas reprint management, and sustainable development goals such as promoting high seas squid conservation. China has also built a system of blacklisting, which imposes strict penalties such as revocation of fishing licenses for 3-5 years on vessels and crew members who operate in violation of the law.
Increasing transparency
While these are positive developments, Trant said, he called on China to crack down on all aspects of IUU practices in its offshore fisheries.
But we remain highly concerned about the effectiveness of these new policies (in China),” Trout said via email to VOA. Because of the lack of transparency in the at-sea operations of China’s distant-water fishing fleet, it is difficult for (international conservation groups) to obtain information on the effectiveness of implementation and to assess whether these new policies are working.”
The Environmental Justice Foundation recommends that the Chinese government further strengthen transparency in ten areas, including mandating that all distant-water fishing vessels obtain International Maritime Organization (IMO) numbers, establishing a special national identification mechanism to distinguish illegal vessels from unauthorized operations, regularly releasing updated information on vessels and their licenses to the public, and having vessels The International Maritime Organization (IMO) number, the establishment of a special national identification mechanism to distinguish unauthorized illegal vessels, and the regular release of updated information on vessels and their license registration, as well as IUU violations and penalties for vessels or crew.
The best weapon against illegal fishing, overfishing and labor human rights violations in the fishing industry is transparency,” said Trant. China should actively pursue the highest standards of transparency in the implementation of its offshore fishing and fisheries policies. These responses include cracking down on Chinese fishermen using flag of convenience vessels from third countries to engage in IUU illegal fishing operations.”
A flag of convenience vessel is one in which a vessel owner of a certain nationality chooses to register his vessel in another country, flying the flag of another country and also becoming a vessel under the jurisdiction of another country. Usually shipowners choose countries with loose fisheries management to register their vessels because, in addition to low registration fees, tax rates and the freedom to hire cheap labor, the main reason for “flying another country’s flag” is to circumvent international fisheries management regulations. Therefore, expedient vessels have always been a controversial practice internationally, as they lack transparency, are not easily regulated, and are often found to be engaged in illegal IUU fishing and involved in forced labor and human trafficking. For this reason, international conservation and labor groups have been calling loudly for years for countries to stop the operation of expedition vessels.
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