China dispatched coast guard vessels in late Huly to the Northern Pacific Ocean for fishery law enforcement patrol, which it described as an act of a responsible "major power."
Two Chinese coast guard vessels, the Changshan and the Shicheng, departed from Qingdao, a port city located in eastern China's province of Shandong and facing the Yellow Sea, on July 26 for a 45-day patrol in northern part of the Pacific Ocean where they will enforce fishery law.
This marks the ninth such patrol and the fifth time since China obtained the authority to board and inspect fishing vessels on the high seas in the Northern Pacific Ocean, which is part of the international waters, the Chinese coast guard said in a press release.
China is a member of the North Pacific Fisheries Commission, or NPFC, which is used for "bridging the gap in regional fisheries management of deep-sea fish and protecting marine ecosystems." Other members include the European Union, Russia and the United States.
The establishment of the commission is based on the Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fisheries Resources in the North Pacific Ocean, or NPFC Convention. China signed the convention in 2013.
According to NPFC, the convention, which entered into force in 2015, aims to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of fisheries' resources in the Northern Pacific Ocean while protecting marine ecosystems in the region in which these resources occur.
In the press release, the Chinese coast guard stressed the importance of law enforcement patrol, which is described as China's commitment to "actively fulfilling" its international obligations.
"[T]his patrol in the high seas of the North Pacific demonstrates China's commitment to fulfilling its international obligations and showcases the nation's image as a responsible major power," said Chinese state media, citing the press release.
The presence of China Coast Guard (CCG) in the Northern Pacific Ocean may raise concerns from other countries, Anne-Marie Brady, a political science and international relations professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, told Newsweek.
"From June this year, the CCG was registered to operate in all three fishing zones of the Pacific, North, Central, and Western. This gives CCG the powers to board any foreign fishing vessels on the high seas in the first, second, and third island chains," she said.
The island chains are a maritime containment plan which has the objective of restricting access to the wider Western Pacific Ocean by the Chinese air and naval forces in wartime.
The CCG is assigned to the People's Armed Police, which is led by the Central Military Commission. It is widely used for gray-zone operations in the disputed waters, Brady said of using nontraditional forces in pursuit of objectives without resorting to armed conflict.
The convention stated that the NPFC has to establish procedures for boarding and inspection of fishing vessels in the regional waters. It also said its member shall take appropriate actions to detain a vessel that is allegedly violating the provisions of the convention.
"It remains to be seen as to whether the CCG will further misuse its inspection powers in other areas of the Pacific," she added.
The Chinese coast guard said that it has actively conducted boarding and inspections of fishing vessels on the high seas, where it played a significant role in combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, which also known as "IUU fishing," in recent years.
However, Beijing is being accused of conducting IUU fishing with China-flagged vessels on the high seas throughout the Asia-Pacific, according to a report published by the SeaLight project, which is under Stanford's Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation.
The report said that the Chinese ships were involved in "theft on a grand scale, unrestricted warfare on natural resources," a practice that is depleting global fish stocks. China has a fleet of over half a million commercial fishing vessels—the largest in the world.
Newsweek contacted China's Foreign Ministry for comment by email.
The Northern Pacific Ocean patrol by the Chinese coast guard comes after the country's air and naval forces operating close to Alaska recently. On July 6-7, four Chinese warships conducted freedom of navigation operations in waters north of the Aleutian Islands.
Two Chinese strategic bombers flew into the Alaska air defense identification zone on July 24, where they executed joint air patrols with two Russian nuclear-capable bombers. Fighter jets from the U.S. and Canada scrambled to intercept.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
