Maritime Tension Between South Korea and China

The South Korean Coast Guard fired warning shots on November 3 at a flotilla of Chinese fishing boats that were allegedly fishing illegally in South Korean waters and on course to ram the Coast Guard ships. South Korean news agency Yonhap reports that the Chinese fishing boats circling the Coast Guard ships prompted the South Korean vessels to fire the shots, ultimately causing the fishing boats to scatter and flee. Neither side of the encounter has reported casualties or injuries. Nevertheless, China’s Foreign Ministry has publicly condemned what it claims was excessive force with “destructive weapons,” even as it promised to more tightly control Chinese fishing boats in the future.

Chinese civilian fishermen have come into conflict with foreign powers before. In March of 2016, a number of Chinese vessels operating in Indonesia’s Exclusive Economic Zone were detained by the Indonesian authorities. Security analysts compare this method of testing neighbors’ boundaries to Russia’s use of little green men in the takeover of the Crimean region of Ukraine. By utilizing unarmed civilian actors, Beijing may maintain an appearance of innocence while still gathering intelligence on the defensive responses of its neighbors.

Of course, China is not the sole culprit of the tension between Seoul and Beijing. South Korea has recently announced and followed through with the deployment of the American THAAD missile defense system against Beijing’s strong public wishes. A number of diplomatic gaffes preventing Chinese tourists from visiting South Korean vacation spots have also contributed to the tension.

China has not only pushed boundaries with civilian vessels, however. The Chinese Coast Guard, though described officially as a civilian organization intended to protect fishing and other non-military activities, is staffed heavily from the ranks of China’s military and fields a fleet of heavily militarized ships.

In some ways, the militarization of the Chinese Coast Guard can be seen as a response to China’s most direct competitor in the region: Japan. Although Japan technically has not fielded any offensive navy since the end of World War II, in reality, its Maritime Self Defense Force constitutes one of the foremost naval outfits in the world.

As a trend, the states of the East and South China Seas seem to be further blurring the lines of what is and is not military in purpose, intent, or use. Although in the short term, it may benefit Japan or China to designate military vessels as civilian branches of government in an effort to press one another’s claims in the region, long term consequences may ultimately prove more risky.

Should this trend continue, what any given state considers grounds for aggressive military reprisal may become less clear, drastically raising the risk of a miscalculation which can lead nations into much more hostile situations.