China’s authorities took up fishermen subsidizing to consolidate their presence in the controversial territorial waters around the Spratley archipelago in the South China Sea and send 300 militia ships daily. This in its report states the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies, reports South China Morning Post.
According to the report of the American Analytical Center, after the completion of the construction of outposts on the artificial islands in 2016, the PRC became on an ongoing basis to direct the sea police into disputed waters. “The militia, which is currently formed in the South China Sea, acts out of ten ports in the Chinese provinces Guangdong and Hainan. The remote sensing data show that about 300 militia courts operate on the islands of Sprati,” said in the report.
The Center claims that the Chinese government issues a daily fuel subsidies in the amount of 24,175 yuan (3700 US dollars) ships with a length of at least 55 meters and with an engine capacity of 1200 kilowatt, working at Spratley Islands.
Junior Researcher, the National Institute of Studying the South China Sea, Chen Syanmyo, considers the exaggeration to call fishermen part of the maritime police. “In my sense, the police are people who pass military training while at the same time engaged in other activities. But most fishermen in China have no military training, and they should not be considered as militia,” he said.
The Territory of the Islands of Sprati is disputed by six states: Vietnam, China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Malaysia, Philippines and Brunhel. In the area of the island archipelago there are significant reserves of oil and gas: in the area of the Rid-Bank archipelago, there are about 50 trillion cubic meters of natural gas and over 5 billion barrels of oil.
August 30, China’s Marine Security Office stated that all foreign vessels are obliged to report the location at the entrance to the “Chinese” territorial water. We are talking about the Russians of Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and others. Now foreign ships are obliged to report to the Chinese administration their callsign, as well as transfer information about transported loads.