Paid agents’: New report lifts lid on Chinese maritime militia By Chris Barrett November 19, 2021 Singapore: The majority of Chinese fishing vessels in disputed areas of the South China Sea are operating as paid agents to help Beijing press its territorial claims with grey-zone tactics. In a new report on China’s maritime militia, the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has detailed the superpower’s program of providing subsidies and bonuses to have fishing boats conduct activities on its behalf. The CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative tracks ongoing activity in the South China Sea. A satellite image shows Chinese vessels anchored at Whitsun Reef, near six Manila-claimed islands in the disputed South China Sea, in March. Credit:Maxar Technologies via AP The report comes amid the latest flare-up in the maritime corridor over Chinese coast guard boats blocking, and firing water cannons at, two Philippines military supply vessels in the contested Spratly Islands on Tuesday. Philippine Foreign Secretary Teddy Locsin jnr on Thursday expressed “outrage, condemnation and protest” over the incident at Ayungin Shoal, an area claimed by Manila, saying it “threatens the special relationship between the Philippines and China”. Beijing has long denied the deployment of a maritime militia to assert control in the strategic waterway along with its coast guard, but the US think tank said it had identified 174 vessels it concluded were likely to be militia. Their activities included harassing fishermen and the oil and gas operations of rival claimants to territories in the South China Sea – China claims 85 per cent of under it controversial nine-dash line............ https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/p...chinese-maritime-militia-20211117-p599rc.html
.......It said they were professional militia and commercial fishing boats recruited with financial perks for operating in disputed areas. They included a special fuel subsidy for fishing in the Spratlys, a one-time bonus for vessels in “specially designated waters” and further subsidies for the building and renovation of professional militia boats, for communications and navigation equipment and for the training of military veterans to serve on the vessels. “Their operations are funded by the Chinese government through subsidies that incentivise local actors to construct vessels in accordance with military specifications and to operate them in disputed waters, ready to assist Chinese law enforcement and naval forces when necessary,” the report said. It said it could “conclusively demonstrate that the majority of Chinese fishing vessels in disputed areas of the South China Sea do not operate as independent commercial actors but instead as paid agents of the Chinese government obligated to help fulfil its political and national security objectives”..........