Communist China operates hundreds of thousands of fishing vessels. Operating as vast superfleets, they feed a voracious domestic market and have no regard for sustainability or the interests of other nations.
It's a big problem.
Surging out of port like the invading Mongol hordes that once crushed China, these fleets travel many thousands of miles from Chinese shores. Rarely concerned with international law or the exclusive economic zones of other nations, the superfleets scour the oceans. It's not just the fish that are sucked dry from their habitats — it's sharks, dolphins, and all manner of other marine animals. Whether in the open oceans or in protected marine reserves such as the Galapagos Islands, Chinese fleets care nothing for the chaos they wreak on vulnerable habitats.
The havoc is real. Overfishing and failing to take precautions to protect undesired or developing marine populations, China threatens the very balance of the ecosystem.
China does not care if other nations' fishing crews suffer. Indeed, China is willing to use force against those who dare to ply their trade in the international waters that China claims as its own. Attested by its impact on West African fishing crews, China's fishing industry is ruining the lives of some of the most impoverished people on Earth.
Again, however, China treats such concerns as irrelevant. Its disdain for the rights of others and international law is clear-cut. Take reporting from the Associated Press's Joshua Goodman last September.
"Between November 2020 and May 2021, a total of 523 mostly Chinese fishing vessels, 35% more than the previous season, were detected just beyond the boundary of Argentina’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, according to satellite data analyzed by Windward, a maritime intelligence firm. Of that amount, 42% had turned off at least once their safety transponders. Meanwhile, 188 of those same vessels showed up near the Galapagos, including 14 Chinese vessels that went offline in both oceans for an average 34 hours each time."
So what can be done?
Nations must take a far more proactive stance in protecting their interests. China's activity should be raised in international forums such as the United Nations, bringing shame to General Secretary Xi Jinping's regime. With Beijing desperate to distract away from negative attention over other matters, such as its human rights record and territorial imperialism, a shame campaign might produce some positive impact. Beyond that, the United States should work with like-minded nations to enforce a more effective control regime to hold Chinese fishing fleets to account. If Chinese crews know that their intrusion into exclusive economic zones or other aggressive behaviors will risk their imprisonment and the destruction of their vessels, their inclination to pursue that activity will decrease.
Regardless, the balance of marine ecosystems is a very serious concern. And China is very much on the wrong side of it.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/chinas-fishing-fleets-are-ruining-the-oceans?utm_campaign=article_rail&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=article_rail
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