An armada of Chinese fishing boats sets sail, 1999. These fishing boats can now travel anywhere across the Pacific. (Wikimedia Commons)

300-odd Chinese fishing boats are currently making their way down South America’s Pacific coast. Because the fleet is currently operating in the international waters off the coast of Peru, the Chilean government can do little but pray that this metaphorical horde of locusts does not head farther south towards the fish and shellfish abundant off the Chilean coastline, a critical source of income for fishermen throughout the country.

The approach of these Chinese vessels has not remained unnoticed. The U.S. Embassy in Lima said in September that the Chinese vessels had a long history of avoiding tracking and illegally dumping plastic pollutants. The Chinese Embassy fired back, stating that it places great importance on protecting the environment and the sea, and hoped that “the Peruvian public is not deceived by false information.” However, despite what Chinese officials say, the veracity of the United States’ admonitions is becoming more and more apparent.

The U.S. Embassy in Peru recently tweeted an alert about the 300 Chinese fishing vessels amassing off the South American coast. The tweet warns readers that the ships are changing their registration numbers and deactivating their GPS trackers. (Twit… — The U.S. Embassy in Peru recently tweeted an alert about the 300 Chinese fishing vessels amassing off the South American coast. The tweet warns readers that the ships are changing their registration numbers and deactivating their GPS trackers. (*Twitter*)

Galapago Away

In late June, prior to fishing off the coast of Peru, the massive Chinese fleet swarmed the Galapagos Islands. For the next several months, the vessels hugged the edge of Ecuador's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), raising concerns among conservationists who feared the fleet would over-fish the squid population and among officials who worried they might violate Ecuadorian sovereignty.

Using Vesselfinder, the ship-tracking webapp, the Caravel obtained the probable location of the Chinese fishing fleet as of October 12. The mass of vessels, mostly fishing boats, lie right on the edge of Peru's maritime EEZ. (Vesselfinder) — *Using Vesselfinder, the ship-tracking webapp, the* Caravel obtained the probable location of the Chinese fishing fleet as of October 12. The mass of vessels, mostly fishing boats, lie right on the edge of Peru's maritime EEZ. (*Vesselfinder*)

While both Chinese officials and Ecuadorian authorities agreed that the fleet did not partake in any illegal activities and followed all international fishing regulations, new information released by data-analytics company HawkEye 360 shows unidentified vessels were present within Ecuador’s EEZ during the same time that many Chinese fishing ships had their automatic identification system (AIS), a GPS-based system that publicly transmits a vessel’s identity and location, turned off.

While there are reasons for breaks in AIS transmission, such as poor satellite reception, it often indicates a ship is deliberately trying to hide its location. Between July 13 and August 13, there were 43 occasions where Chinese vessels near the Galapagos turned off their AIS systems, remaining “dark” for an average of two days at a time.

It is very unlikely that these Chinese vessels are going dark for anything but illegal activities. As the Chinese fleet entered the waters around the Galapagos Islands, the number of vessels that went “dark” rapidly increased, with Chinese ships representing 87 percent of such disappearances. It’s not poor satellite reception: these actions match a trend of increasing aggression and exploitation by China’s distant-water fishing fleet.

A Little Fishy

Along the coast of Japan, battered wooden “ghost boats” containing the bodies of starved North Korean fishermen would often wash up on the beaches. While, for many years, international observers could not explain the persistence of the strange phenomenon, with more than 150 vessels washing up in 2019 alone, new satellite data has revealed the truth.

Last year, more than 700 Chinese fishing vessels, in violation of United Nations sanctions, illegally fished in North Korean waters, depleting squid stock by more than 70 percent and forcing North Korean fishermen to venture further and further from shore. The corpses of these starved fishermen are the deadly result of what Jaeyoon Park, a data scientist from Global Fishing Watch calls, the “largest known case of illegal fishing perpetrated by a single industrial fleet operating in another nation’s waters.”

Economy of Scales

China's Global fishing fleet is massive, containing anywhere from 200,000 to 800,000 fishing boats, which account for nearly half the world's fishing activity. While the Chinese government claims its distant-water fishing fleet numbers around 2,600, other sources put the number closer to 17,000. The United States’ distant-water fishing fleet containes fewer than 300 vessels.

Such a massive fleet is needed not only to make China the world's largest seafood exporter but also to satisfy domestic markets, which account for one third all fish consumption worldwide. With fisheries at home depleted, China's fishing fleet has ventured further and further from its territorial waters in recent years, exploiting West Africa and Latin America, where fishing enforcement is weak due to a lack of resources. These Chinese fleets push out the domestic competition, scooping up as many fish in one week as local boats might catch in a year.

You've Gotta Be Squidding Me

China's dominance on the seas is best demonstrated by its success in squid fishing: Chinese fishing vessels account for 50 to 70 percent of all squid caught in international waters, effectively wrapping a tight economic tentacle around the supply of the seafood.

It’s no surprise that many people outside China have become critical of Chinese fishing practices. To catch squid, Chinese vessels typically used crawling nets, resulting in the wasteful killing of many fish. Additionally, Chinese fleets overwhelm vessels from other countries in major squid breeding grounds.

China's fishing fleet grew into the behemoth that it is today thanks to robust subsidies from the Chinese government, which spends billions of yuan annually on promoting fishing. Chinese vessels can travel so far partly because of a tenfold increase in government diesel fuel subsidies between 2006 and 2011. The government has helped pay to construct bigger fishing trawlers and has even sent medical ships to fishing grounds to allow their fleets to stay at sea longer.

China’s military installation on the artificial island of Fiery Cross Reef in the contested South China Sea, as of 2020. China has engaged in militarizing artificial islands in the region for almost a decade. (Wikimedia Commons)

Chinese Mussel

According to research by Enric Sala, founder of the National Geographic Society’s Pristine Seas project, China's distant water squid fishing business loses money. The market price of squid does not come close to covering the cost of fuel required to catch it.

But the fleets which skirt along the edges of other countries' waters serve a role much larger than simply economic. The Chinese government, as a part of their larger geopolitical aspirations, has used the country's commercial fishermen as a de facto paramilitary force whose actions are not the responsibility of the government.

This nominally civilian fleet assists the Chinese government in asserting territorial dominance, especially against fishermen and governments which challenge the country’s claims in the South China Sea. As Huang Jing, former director of the Center on Asia and Globalization at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore puts it, “What China is doing is putting both hands behind its back and using its big belly to push you out, to dare you to hit first.”

These Chinese commercial vessels are incredibly aggressive on behalf of their government. They act “without proper training and outside of the frameworks of international maritime law, the military rules of engagement, or the multilateral mechanisms set up to prevent unsafe incidents at sea,” wrote Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. For example, in a 2018 attempt to intimidate competitors to Chinese claims in the region, 90 Chinese fishing ships dropped anchor within several miles of the Philippines-held Thitu Island after the Philippine government started modest upgrades to the island’s infrastructure.

These clashes are not limited to the South China Sea. In 2016, when an Argentine Coast Guard vessel fired a warning shot to stop a Chinese ship escaping to international waters, the vessel, the Lu Yan Yuan, responded by trying to ram the Argentine boat.

Such confrontations raise concerns that “civilian” clashes could rapidly escalate into broader military conflict. More immediately, Chinese policy is rapidly accelerating ocean depletion.

Shrimping for China?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, while many saw the U.S. take a step back from its role in global leadership, freezing shipments of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical supplies to its allies, South America saw China step in—donating ventilators, masks, and other medical supplies to countries such as Brazil, Peru, and Argentina. Governments on the receiving end of this aid have been very appreciative, with Mexico's foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard tweeting out in June, "Thanks to China for its unwavering support during this pandemic!!!"

In a virtual meeting on July 23, China's foreign minister Wang Yi announced that Beijing had agreed to give a one billion dollar loan to Latin American and Caribbean countries to assist them in securing an eventual COVID-19 vaccine developed by China.

As a region devastated by the pandemic and its economic consequences, and with China becoming the top trading partner for multiple countries within the region, South American states may be less willing to oppose China's exploitative fishing practices off their shores in favor of not upsetting their Chinese partners. In a region where Chinese ties have generally been lacking, South America is no longer anchored to the U.S.