Satellites and seafood: China keeps fishing fleet connected

in disputed waters
By John Ruwitch
TANMEN China Sun Jul 27, 2014 11:57pm EDT
1 of 6. A dinghy ferries people to fishing boats at a port in the city of Dongfang on the western side
of China's palm-fringed island province of Hainan, June 18, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/John Ruwitch
TANMEN China (Reuters) - On China's southern Hainan island, a fishing boat captain shows a
Reuters reporter around his aging vessel. He has one high-tech piece of kit, however: a satellite
navigation system that gives him a direct link to the Chinese coastguard should he run into bad
weather or a Philippine or Vietnamese patrol ship when he's fishing in the disputed South China Sea.
By the end of last year, China's homegrown Beidou satellite system had been installed on more than
50,000 Chinese fishing boats, according to official media. On Hainan, China's gateway to the South
China Sea, boat captains have paid no more than 10 percent of the cost. The government has paid
the rest.
It's a sign of China's growing financial support for its fishermen as they head deeper into Southeast
Asian waters in search of new fishing grounds as stocks thin out closer to home.
Hainan authorities encourage fishermen to sail to disputed areas, the captain and several other
fishermen told Reuters during interviews in the sleepy port of Tanmen. Government fuel subsidies
make the trips possible, they added.
That has put Chinese fishing boats - from privately owned craft to commercial trawlers belonging to
publicly listed companies - on the frontlines of one of Asia's flashpoints.
Most recently, they were a fixture around a Chinese oil rig positioned in disputed waters off
Vietnam, where they jostled and collided with Vietnamese fishing boats for more than two months
until China withdrew the drilling platform in mid-July.
Explanations for China's assertiveness in the South China Sea usually focus on the strategic
significance of the waterway, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes each year, or
Beijing's goal to increase its offshore oil and gas output.
Rarely mentioned is the importance of seafood to the Chinese diet, several experts said. A 2014
report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), for example, said China's per-capita fish
consumption was 35.1 kg in 2010, nearly double the global average of 18.9 kg.
"Fish products are just so critical to China's way of life. I think this is something most people haven't
factored into the equation when they've looked at these conflicts and disputes," said Alan Dupont, a
professor of international security at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
"It's pretty clear that the Chinese fishing fleet is being encouraged to fish in disputed waters. I think
that's now become policy as distinct from an opportunistic thing, and that the government is
encouraging its fishing fleet to do this for geopolitical as well as economic and commercial reasons."
Graphic: reut.rs/1rgZnOG
DISTRESS SIGNAL
With 16 Chinese satellites in orbit above the Asia-Pacific at the end of 2012 and more planned, the
19-month-old Beidou system is a rival to the dominant U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and
Russia's GLONASS. China's military is already a big user of Beidou, or Big Dipper.
It's unclear how often Chinese fishermen use Beidou to seek help. None of the fishermen Reuters
interviewed in Tanmen said they had sent a distress call.
But fishermen could use the system to alert authorities if they had mechanical trouble or had a run-
in with foreign maritime agencies, Chinese official media has said.
The push of an emergency button sends a message straight to the Chinese authorities, which
because Beidou actively transmits location data, could pinpoint the exact whereabouts of a vessel.
Beidou's unique short messaging system also allows users to communicate with other fishermen,
family or friends.
When Philippine authorities boarded a Chinese fishing
vessel in May in a contested reef in the Spratlys, one of
the region's main island chains, they quickly turned off
the Beidou system, China's official Xinhua news agency
said at the time.
A senior Philippine police official disputed that report,
saying the boat had no satellite tracking device. Nine
Chinese fishermen from the boat are awaiting trial in the
Philippines for catching endangered turtles.
Zhang Jie, deputy director of the Hainan Maritime Safety Administration, a government agency, said
he did not have accurate information on Beidou usage but added that fishermen were encouraged to
fish in any waters that belonged to China.
At the same time, Zhang told Reuters he did not believe the government wanted them to seek
conflict with other countries.
Other authorities in Hainan, such as the provincial fisheries office and the bureau which enforces
fishing regulations, did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did the China Satellite Navigation
Office, which runs Beidou.
The Foreign Ministry along with the State Oceanic Administration, which has overall civilian
responsibility for maritime affairs including the coastguard and fishing vessels, also did not respond
to requests for comment.
XI BACKS FISHERMEN
Since President Xi Jinping took power in March last year, Beijing has increasingly flexed its muscles
in the South China Sea. China claims 90 percent of the 3.5 million sq km (1.35 million sq mile)
waterway, with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also claiming parts of the
ocean.
China sent its sole aircraft carrier through the South China Sea for the first time in late 2013 while
its coastguard has sought to block the Philippine navy from re-supplying a military outpost on a reef
claimed by Manila in the Spratlys.
While some of China's actions have alarmed other claimants and drawn criticism from Washington,
such as the placement of the oil rig off Vietnam, China says it has every right to conduct what it calls
normal operations in its waters.
Only weeks after becoming president, Xi made what
state media called a surprise visit to Tanmen, where he
told fishermen the government would do more to protect
them when they were in disputed waters.
Xi never elaborated, but a huge billboard near the port
commemorates his visit, showing a picture of the
president flanked by grinning fishermen with trawlers in the background.
Several fishermen from separate boats said the Hainan authorities encouraged fishing as far away as
the Spratlys, roughly 1,100 km (670 miles) to the south.
The boat captain said he would head there as soon as his vessel underwent routine repairs.
"I've been there many times," said the captain, who like the other fishermen declined to be identified
because he was worried about repercussions for discussing sensitive maritime issues with a foreign
journalist.
Another fisherman, relaxing in a hammock on a boat loaded with giant clam shells from the Spratlys,
said captains received fuel subsidies for each journey. For a 500 horsepower engine, a captain could
get 2,000-3,000 yuan ($320-$480) a day, he said.
"The government tells us where to go and they pay fuel subsidies based on the engine size," said the
fisherman.
Added one weather-beaten captain: "The authorities support fishing in the South China Sea to
protect China's sovereignty."
To be sure, they have other reasons to make the journey. A study by the State Oceanic
Administration said in October 2012 that fish stocks along the Chinese coast were in decline.
"Right now I would say competition for fishing resources is the main cause of tensions between
China and regional countries," said Zhang Hongzhou, associate research fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
DAVID VERSUS GOLIATH
At least one big Chinese fishing company is also flying the flag in disputed waters and benefiting
from government assistance.
In late February, Shanghai-listed Shandong Homey Aquatic Development Co Ltd, which has annual
seafood sales of $150 million, announced the launch of eight new 55-metre long (180-ft) trawlers
from the port city of Dongfang on Hainan.
On its website, it said the move was a "response to the government's call to develop the South China
Sea and safeguard national sovereignty".
Six weeks later, the Dongfang city government said Shandong Homey would get 2 million yuan
($322,500) for each boat in "renovation" grants, according to its website. Dongfang officials declined
to comment.
Shandong Homey might need the money for repairs.
In late May, Vietnam's government accused a Chinese trawler of ramming and sinking a small
Vietnamese wooden fishing boat near the Chinese oil rig in an incident captured on video. China said
the Vietnamese boat was being aggressive.
While footage of the May 26 incident is too blurry for the naked eye to determine the number on the
Chinese ship's hull, Vietnam's coastguard said it was #11209.
Dang Van Nhan, 42, the captain of the sunken boat and who was rescued along with nine crew, told
Reuters during an interview in the coastal Vietnamese city of Danang that it was #11202, saying he
got a clear look.
The Dongfang city government website lists vessels #11209 and #11202 and six others as Shandong
Homey's eight new boats.
In the Dongfang harbor, several Shandong Homey boats lay anchored including vessels #11209 and
#11202. Both have the same features as the trawler in the video.
Shandong Homey declined telephone and email requests to comment. One crew member at the port
said the fleet returned to Dongfang in early June but then refused to say anything more.
Several Shandong Homey employees later surrounded a Reuters reporter and demanded to know
why he was asking about the boats. They then turned him over to police, who briefly detained him.
($1 = 6.2025 Chinese Yuan)
(Additional reporting by Nguyen Phuong Linh in DANANG, Vietnam, Manny Mogato in MANILA and
Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Dean Yates)
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