‘Chinese fishing expeditions in Spratlys not violating laws’

HAIKOU, Hainan – Chinese academic experts on the South China Sea yesterday justified the conduct of massive fishing activities by Chinese fishermen in the disputed high seas.

According to Wu Shicun, president and senior research fellow of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies (NISCSS), the Chinese fishermen supposedly on fishing expeditions in the West Philippine Sea area cannot be held for any illegal activity.

He even pointed out that other fishermen from claimant countries have been monitored to have conducted fishing activities in the disputed area.

“Don’t think that China is the only country fishing in the area… the Philippines and Vietnam fishermen were there fishing in the ocean,” he said.

Wu said “there is no law” that bars fishing in the disputed waters as far as the Chinese government is concerned.

“If China thinks those fishermen violated domestic laws, then China should punish (them) under those laws, such as environment protection law,” Wu said.

Wu responded to a question by a member of the Philippine media delegation – invited by the Chinese embassy in Manila for its first Southwestern economical and cultural familiarization tour – on how the two countries can possibly set mechanisms to stop illegal fishing in the disputed area.

The Philippines charged nine Chinese fishermen last May for poaching more than 500 endangered sea turtles at a shoal, called Banyue Reef in China. 

A Philippine court had also sentenced 12 Chinese fishermen for six to 10 years in prison for illegal fishing. They are also facing a separate charge on possession of protected species.

Beijing claims the shoal is part of the Nansha island chain, known internationally as Spratly Islands. 

Wu also confirmed earlier reports that the Spratlys are a major cluster of natural gas and oil-rich islands, estimated at around 15 billion tons equivalent in oil.

Fish farm at Mischief Reef

There are also reports that China is putting up a fish farm complex at Panganiban Reef (Mischief Reef) that Beijing occupied years back and developed into a highly fortified forward naval facility in the disputed region.

A translated Chinese report posted by Beijing’s online news media, huanqiu.com, quoted Lei Jilin, a search fellow at Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, as saying that Beijing will not merely be guarding its claimed territories in the disputed region but will also be intensifying exploitation of the region’s deep-sea resources.

Lei said intensive preparations have been made for China’s first fish farming industrial ship to be deployed at Panganiban Reef.

Initial design of the ship has been completed, the report added.

“We will not merely guard our territories while neglecting exploiting our deep-sea resources,” Lei said.

More than 1,000 kilometers from its nearest coast in Hainan province and only 130 nautical miles from Palawan, Panganiban Reef has been classified by China as one of its major fishery hubs.

The report said Chinese scientists and technicians are currently helping more fishermen to settle down at Panganiban Reef to develop deep sea-cage-culture fish farming.

“However, as the reef lies far from the Chinese mainland, there are difficulties to ensure supplies for daily production and life,” the report added.

To deal with the problem, Lei said an old oil tanker will be purchased to be transformed into a large fish farming industrial complex for fish farming, processing and storage and to provide services at sea.

“When it is already built, the vessel will be stationed at the reef to administer and guard the sea area and provide berth, fish processing and shipping, supplies, relief and assistance to boats in addition to its operation as fish farming complex. It will thus become a mobile production base on the sea,” the report said.

The first Chinese fish farm complex, once proven to be a success, will entail more ships to be built and stationed on other islets and reefs in the disputed region.

Lei also told the media that in the past, China stationed troops and people to guard its maritime border.

“Now we have to extend the tradition to stationing troops and people to conduct fishery and fish farming at maritime border areas while guarding the border,” Lei told Chinese reporters.

China, using an obscure and hazy nine-dash line map, is claiming almost 80 percent of the entire South China Sea and aggressively pursuing this maritime claim by conducting reclamation projects to transform its four occupied reefs – the Mabini Reef, Burgos Reef, Chigua Reef and Cuarteron Reef – into artificial islands.

These four reefs, as well Panganiban Reef, are all located well within the Philippines 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

China is also eyeing to occupy Ayungin Shoal and the oil-rich Recto Bank.

Guarded by Filipino troops stationed on a grounded Navy ship, Ayungin Shoal is currently under constant watch of Chinese coast guard vessels.

In June this year, Chinese vessels also installed their own markers over the area at Recto Bank but they were removed by Filipino troops. – With Jaime Laude