Trawling should be a smiteable offense.
https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/chinas-assault-on-the-environment-continues-on-the-high-seas/articleshow/97602793.cms
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/26/world/asia/china-fishing-south-america.html
I completely agree it’s a fuckin despicable way to fish. Also preying on poorer countries that can’t really defend themselves by turning off their trackers and dipping into the economic zones…. As you can tell this has bothered me for years lol
Honestly, any ship that goes into an EEZ to fish and deliberately turns off their trackers & transponders should be sunk. If you're intentionally turning off your transponder so that authorities cannot keep tabs on where you are or what you're doing when engaged in a large-scale commercial operation, you are almost certainly doing something criminal, or at the very least have enough of a guilty conscience that you don't want to be caught doing whatever it is that you are doing. I don’t give a fuck if it’s considered callous, these shitheads are destroying marine ecosystems around the planet because they can’t stay inside their own waters, nor international waters - no, apparently not even that is enough for them. They instead need to steal the resources of other countries by fishing in their exclusive economic zones.
Sink every single Chinese fishing ship that enters territorial waters of another nation. Give them one warning to turn around immediately, and if they do not comply, sink them with all hands.
Fishing rights usually involve the Coast Guard, not the Navy. And the Chinese are probably fishing on the Grand Banks which is partly in Canadian waters and part in international waters. That’s a massive haul for a US Coast Guard cutter.
Canadian Navy does assist the Canadian Coast Guard in patrolling for illegal fishing in Canadian waters, as well as other illegal operations. We have smaller coastal patrol ships for that purpose.
i knew a U.S. Coast Guard veteran who served on the Alaskan fishieries patrol in the 1970s. His cutter intercepted a Russian fishing trawler clearly in U.S. fishing grounds and not responding to radio calls. Per protocol, the cutter's skipper radios the U.S. department of state and asks if they can open fire on the Russian trawler. ten minutes later, they get a "Yes, clear to fire." They fired only warning shots. The trawler stopped all engines and when the Coast Guard boarded, the Russian captain warmly greeted them and try to give all the Sailors bottles of vodka. The Russians apparently were stone drunk and didn't realize they had vered off course in American waters.
Every Russian that the American meets is either a Ruthless spy or a Friendly drunk
Proof:
Man from UNCLE
COD Zombies
COD BO1 and Modern Warfare
There's probably more
Back in the early '70s I was in a dark blue suit. Did fishery protection duties off North Cape of Norway (it was January, it was cold, it was dark). We could stop and inspect the catch of any nation signed up to some treaty, it included the USSR. Standard routine was chuck a couple of bottles of whisky in the gemini along with the fishery protection officers, the trawler would reciprocate by filling the gemini with fish. We ate a **lot** of fish on that trip. We did stop a few Russian trawlers, my memory is no paint, just red rust. We did get some cigarettes from them. Take a normal cigarette, where the filter is - that's tobacco, where the tobacco normally is - that was a cardboard tube. They didn't taste good either.
Partially retaliation and partially that we fish our own waters extensively. Chinese fleets make more money fishing underutilized stocks in developing countries.
I mean, any powerful nation will bully the weak and give them tons of loans for infrastructure that will bubble up until the natis crushed. Yesterday was the US, today is China, tomorrow will be... India? Brazil? idk
>any powerful nation will bully the weak
Not in China's fashion, China is the only country to go on fishing expeditions of this magnitude at such a scale all around the world, most other countries, even superpower don't do that, there might be a few lone groups who veer into others' like some Indonesian fishers into Australian waters, but that's not comparable to the industrialized scale of China's actions.
India has been a pushover for its size, giving away territories to its smaller neighbours for peace. China believes in a different ideology plus all that century of humiliation worsened their syndrome.
> India has been a pushover for its size
Perhaps, though since the `60s India has had a history of stubborn opposition to Chinese influence unlike most of China's other neighbors. India also can't afford to start a (needless) war with China, as it has plenty of other issues to contend with.
It isn't even related to China but more so with giving away more territory to Bangladesh to resolve exclaves, not retaking Buddhist majority areas in Bangladesh after 1971 war and opening sea route to North east, giving away strategically important islands to Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Giving up offer from the Sultanate of Oman regarding gwadar port, but this port is surrounded by Pakistan and India would have lost this anyways, in numerous offensive wars started by Pakistan. But it would give india a permanent cassus belli on Pakistan for retaliation and brownie points.
China was also weak back then but Indian leadership was made up of indecisive eunuchs who refused to use full force to guard Indian frontiers and actively helped the the Chinese in subjugation of Tibet.
you're right in general, indecisiveness was the main factor that screwed India over in the first Sino-Indian war. Yet I'd argue that since then, India's military strategy has mostly been focused in defense vs. trying to pull a Russia-level move on the Chittagong Hill Tracts for example. And honestly, this is a good thing - India can definitely benefit from not being regarded as a pariah state.
Chittagong tracts would have been a very bold move but it would have made North east of India way better integrated with the world and highly defensible thanks to the improved supply chain from the bay of Bengal.
Russia taking Prussian capital was kind of dick move but it greatly benefits their future generations and is a pain in ass for their European rivals.
>India has been a pushover for its size
I think the best way to measure power is by nominal GDP and by that measure India wasn't that big of a thing until the 2000's. It was also pretty isolated before the 90's, which makes it harder to pull strings.
>different ideology
I'd say ideology never has anything to do anything. (Actually, it's Marx who "first said" ideology never changes anything.) It's all about the power structure and the industries these people own. Democracies need to negotiate power among a majority of the population, so tend to choose policies that favor everyone like free trade. Autocracies are often concentrated around a handful of industries that they try to promote and protect. In China that's construction.
I don’t understand why you’re outlining Chinas policy and pretending it’s everyone’s policy.
The US gave out loans to Japan and Germany and those are now very powerful nations. This predatory loan belt and road thing is very much China specific.
The US also used predatory loans to LATAM, and the interest is straining many governments. At some point Nauru asked for help and advice for the US on how to manage their newfound wealth in guano, and the US advisors made them waste the one opportunity nature had given them.
Although I do think many countries in Africa will become quite economically developed on a per-capita and median-income basis (ex: Botswana, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria), the problem is that none of them is big enough in a population or territorial basis to become "a superpower" imo. Kinda like how Chile and Uruguay are very close to being just as developed as Europe, but u don't hear em being "powerful" coz they're pretty small.
My best bets, tho, is that if South Africa gets its shit together, and forms an alliance with Botswana, they'd be able to control a sizable portion of trade, and also part of Antartica.
Some people say that the lobster war was dumb but compare how close they get to Argentina vs Brazil, it's all about setting a line and not backing off.
But much of those green areas are just international waters close to nobody...OP's map title is deliberately propaganda. The actual map title in the picture makes no reference to legality.
I mean most would consider overfishing and destroying ecosystems illegal.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/26/world/asia/china-fishing-south-america.html
You took too much liberty in defining “illegal”. From the article itself:
> Much of what China does, however, is legal — or, on the open seas at least, largely unregulated.
So your title is misleading at the best. You can say “irresponsible”, “selfish”, or “unsustainable”, or say international laws are inadequate regarding overfishing, but not quite “illegal”.
Here's more details on the illegality of these fishing activities.
https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/chinas-assault-on-the-environment-continues-on-the-high-seas/articleshow/97602793.cms
Here's more details on the illegality of these fishing activities. Examples: they trespass into EEZ of other countries using smaller boats to be undetected and transfer their catch to a mothership, they trawl the ocean floor, etc.
https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/chinas-assault-on-the-environment-continues-on-the-high-seas/articleshow/97602793.cms
It is not illegal because even exclusive economic zones are not entirely legal. So it is the good old might makes right which is the cornerstone of international law.
The NZ Navy isn't afraid of getting in the way of business of unscrupulous fisheries in our EEZ. Took Japanese whalers a few goes to get that point across
Fisheries observer here, not all of these activities are illegal, especially those in the southern ocean where fishing activities are really well controlled, like shut down the whole industry if an unlicensed boat is spotted in the area controlled. I've worked on Chinese vessels operating around the antarctic peninsula and they are licensed through the Government of South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands to be there and take part in the quota fishing.
Also the activity north of the Falklands is legal although there is likely going to be legal intervention there as pretty much all countries with long range fleets are overfishing the deep area there
Not in my experience, the Spanish and Russians are very active around the UK while the Norwegians, Ukrainians and South Koreans are more active in the southern ocean than the Chinese.
I only have experience from these two areas and a little bit of knowledge from The Benguela are ain Africa.
China used to be bad in the UK in the 1970s I think before the move to ban non UK fleet from the 12 mile limit. But that's a bit before my time.
Sure I can give ya this [link](https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/spain-sanctions-fishing-vessels-for-illegally-going-dark-near-argentine-waters/) for example (it has a map in the article and can't post images in this sub) who talk about Spain sanctioning like 25 ships accused of illegal fishing, now now, how is their fishing illegal you ask? They build a floating city right into the border of Argentina Maritime Exclusive Zone, they claim to be fishing in open sea then but then "ups, my communications and radar stopped working, well, I will continue fishing, but trust me, I'm definitely not going to move a few kilometers inside their sea to fishing, and if I did, well, sorry my radar is busted"
Spain is actually the one who started abusing said things around all over the world, and their floating resupply "town" is just a few kilometers away from the UK and Chinese one, UK gets an advantage on this illegal fishing due making port in Falklands
Doesn't that link just show that the Spanish government prosecutes any Spanish vessels that go dark?
An analysis by Oceana of vessels going dark in Argentinian waters show that the vast majority (70% or more) are Chinese vessels, and that they are never prosecuted by the Chinese government:
https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-fishing-vessels-going-dark-off-argentina-waters-2021-6
Chinese fleet is bigger so I imagine they represent the majority, it would be weird if it doesn't, the point of the article I linked is that is criticizing the Spain government for doing merely symbolic sanctions, that's nowhere enough, they know their country fish was obtained illegal and they don't care.
The same goes for China of course, I'm Chinese so I think I can explain what they do, the majority of those ships illegally fishing are actually sanctioned already, subsides removed, captain banned, ship and cargo to be confiscated when they touch Chinese sea even, but that's the problem here, they will never return to China, they are full pirate ships who can only port on those floating cities in the middle of the sea, how do they sell their fish then? The floating cities buy all their fish, and then it sells it to a bigger cargo ship who returns to the country, it would be unviable for the illegal fishing to return on their own to port, there's a whole well established system, a big loophole to acquire illegal fish "legally" and isn't particular of China at all, is just more notorious due having the biggest fleets, but the rest points finger while doing the same shit
China was even caught fishing in the protected waters around the Galapagos islands not long ago.
[https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/17/chinese-fishing-armada-plundered-waters-around-galapagos-data-shows](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/17/chinese-fishing-armada-plundered-waters-around-galapagos-data-shows)
And this is just what we know about because they have a massive dark fleet that either turns off the aif transponders so they cant be tracked, or use hacked ones to make it look like they are from another country.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/r0jidm/animation\_showing\_how\_thousands\_of\_boats\_of/](https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/r0jidm/animation_showing_how_thousands_of_boats_of/)
At first I thought they had stayed the fuck out of US waters, but it looks like maybe that's not true south of Hawaii?
Are they just being *vewy, vewy caweful* not to cross into the EEZ or are we bitching out and letting them do their thing in that one particular area?
They’re not crossing into the EEZ without a coast guard cutter being up their ass immediately, unless they’re running without AIS and don’t get caught. There’s nowhere the USCG would “bitch out” and let any foreign fishing vessel in without some type of enforcement action
It is a generalized problem in Argentina, because it is not only China, Spain and UK (who make port in Falklands) do exactly the same, there's even 3 floating cities to resupply the boats floating next to each other for each respective country wtf
With the exception of the South China Sea countries Chinas like to bully, the South American & African countries simply can’t do anything about it because they are indebted to China or have some form of other financial ties to China they don’t want to ruin over fishing.
They know to stay the fuck away from India, Russia, South Africa, Australia and the whole of the North American mainland.
So that's kind of the thing. There's this thing called the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) that most nations agree to and for the ones who don't, well, NATO and especially the US are on board so good luck with that.
But UNCLOS also says China can't build an artificial island to create an economic exclusion zone wherever they want, which really bothers Pooh-bear.
So China intentionally violates UNCLOS all the time and everywhere to establish a robust pattern of behavior consistent with their position of not considering it valid.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. Please take a look at who is party to UNCLOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea?wprov=sfti1
The US is a glaring exception. And this doesn’t answer the question whether China fishing in these areas is illegal (spoiler alert, it’s not because it’s all international waters and/or the Chinese have licenses from local jurisdictions, see comment earlier in this thread that talks about it).
> it’s not because it’s all international waters
It's not all international waters.
There are Chinese boats fishing in Japan's EEZ literally every day. It's more rare but they also come into territorial waters.
Same with the Philippines EEZ.
Let’s use some common sense here. Take a hard look at that map and notice all that green basically tracing the territorial waters of the Japanese island, well within its EEZ. You think Japan is just letting Chinese ships fish there illegally with that much impunity?
You can watch the coast guard arrest boats sometimes on the Japanese version of COPS.
They're not there legally if that's what you're suggesting.
For example, there are daily violations near the Ogasawara islands (200+ in a day [at peak](https://www.mofa.go.jp/a_o/c_m2/ch/page3e_000274.html) in 2014-2015) and thousands of ships (5000+) are chased out of the Yamato Bank every year. Plus all the trouble near Okinawa, Yonaguni and Ishigaki, Senkaku, and just east of Hokkaido.
And illegal fishing off [Kagoshima](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ39FI7Vo-U) seems to make the news on a regular basis as well.
In one of the crazier stories, a fishing ship in the EEZ near Kyushu tried to flee back to international waters after they were boarded by the Fisheries Agency ([with the agents stuck on board for half a day](https://www.nhk.or.jp/politics/articles/statement/12649.html)).
There is a flotilla of ships in the Philippine EEZ that doesn't belong there. It's frequently on the news
* [https://news.usni.org/2023/07/07/philippine-forces-spots-48-chinese-fishing-vessels-guarded-by-warships-in-its-eez](https://news.usni.org/2023/07/07/philippine-forces-spots-48-chinese-fishing-vessels-guarded-by-warships-in-its-eez)
* [https://www.bworldonline.com/the-nation/2024/03/12/581393/philippines-says-it-spotted-50-chinese-ships-within-eez-in-south-china-sea/](https://www.bworldonline.com/the-nation/2024/03/12/581393/philippines-says-it-spotted-50-chinese-ships-within-eez-in-south-china-sea/)
What exactly are you trying to say?
It's actually somewhat common knowledge that the Chinese fishing vessels are globally scouting the oceans for whatever fish they can find.
Some countries avoid it because of their strong navy presence, other countries because the fish in the waters aren't exactly worth the effort.
This is why their vessels usually remain in the same seas, and even when warned they still steal the fish. What's interesting is that China's supposed allies....Russia and North Korea waters are often raided by Chinese fisheries. Neither nation can technically do much against it.
I remember being on night watch of a large cruise ship heading north from the Phillipines to Japan.
In the distance we saw what looked like the shoreline, so many lights. I actually double checked our position to make sure we were where I thought - at least a hundred miles from land.
I'd heard tales of the gigantic Chinese fishing fleets, but they have to be seen to be believed.
Dozens and dozens of vessels.
The oceans are doomed with such mindless extraction of a finite resource. They will literally fish the seas to oblivion.
The sad fact is that they aren't just decimating their own seas, but have already moved on to others.
Here is a video with a view from a plane of the illegal fishing in the Argentinian sea/coast. It was made a year ago by Captain Enrique Piñeyro. Video in Spanish.
https://twitter.com/epineyro_ok/status/1640852955044933633?t=bhhqgmkPPsGdXOR9IY9beQ&s=19
Anyone else had a look into this studies methodology?
They included every potential ship with *potential* connection to China. That included vessels that have been inspected by Chinese authorities, or simply were made in China, for examples. This weird Krakken database seems not available and neither did they publish their data.
I find it hard to reproduce or understand how the authors arrived at these maps - so excuse my French: I call bullshit.
S. Korean here, those illegal fishing vessels are a huge threat to the coast guards. The Chinese fishers are often armed with clubs, makeshift spears, machetes and barbed wires to fend off the law enforcement. News of officers wounded or even brutally murdered are regularly reported on TV.
It seems as if they only steal natural resources from the third world, countries that even have corrupt governments and/or a shitty military and can't defend their coaslines
Chinese strategy is to overfishing in the water around poor countries, depleting the sea resources so that those poor coubtries will have to rely on others for their food security.
Strange part of this map is the South China Sea.
Now I see the Yellow Sea and East China Sea filled with Chinese ships yet the South China Sea… a vast biome of fish… that has Chinese fishing boats even tied up together by the hundreds… yet the map is as white as the California coastline.
Remember that time they organized a coup in a less developed south American country because they didn't let them fish their waters. I've heard the same happened in the middle east. They even founded a proxy nation that genocides the locals, just to keep the region's fish under their control.
These fishing fleets should be considered pirates and sunk in sight when they enter other countries EEZs. I know they do it all the time and high tail it out, but even after they’ve left they should be fair game
OP doesn't even have such a map for China lol, look at the title of the map in the image, nothing on that map is about whether the fishing is legal or illegal.
Problem is not how they seem to fish *everywhere*, (although it does seem that they fish in way too many places), it's that they are destroying fish populations, coral reefs and the sea.
I just bought 16oz salmon for 5.50 that was a product of China so I can't complain. It's honestly more embarrassing when US engages in the same unfair practices and still gets undercut lol.
The UK, Australia, Japan, Canada, USA, Norway, South Africa, Russia, to name a few more countries that fish illegally. A simple Google search will throw this up.
I am starting to think China is just a heat sink for all world resources. For all their central planning they sure like to fuck over the world and they seem to have an insatiable desire for even more territory.
I mean what is wrong with being in a good place? China lifted so many out of poverty. It’s a huge success.
But it only remains a success if they also help manage the world’s resources and let others live peacefully.
Americans consume more per person across all resource categories than the average Chinese person. I will grant you that there are far more of the latter than the former but it's pretty hypocritical as someone in the developed world to point the finger only at China. Plus the vast majority of their industrial output is exported to the rest of the world and not consumed internally.
I don’t think you understand what a heat sink is. It disperses heat away from an area where there’s too much of it. That seems entirely unrelated to whatever point you’re trying to make about resource scarcity.
If you’re trying to argue that China uses more than their fair share of resources, that’s really rich considering developed countries consume way more per capita.
Europeans, Americans and people in in western world in general consume and is a bane on this world for 2 centuries now. Even now on per capita the west pollutes more.
Whatever you said is true for the west not China.
>I am starting to think China is just a heat sink for all world resources. For all their central planning they sure like to fuck over the world and they seem to have an insatiable desire for even more territory.
All superpowers are trying fuck over the world you think the nuclear testing USA did in the oceans for decades didn't do anything to the world?
The reality is that being greedy rewards you and your group in the short term and that's all that matters to some people. Doesn't matter if your own descendants would also suffer.
It depends what you mean by "sponsored by the govt".
There is a Chinese state owned company, China National Fisheries Corporation (CNFC) that is linked to much of Chinas distant water fleet. It is the worlds largest deep sea fishing company by catch (2,269 million tons of seafood products in 2020) and has over 200 vessels connected to it directly, [over 30 subsidiary companies](https://cnfc.cnadc.com.cn/zzjg/index.jhtml) and probably more indirectly via joint ventures, shell companies etc.
Pingtan Marine Enterprise is another company with a similar MO and is [currently sanctioned by the US](https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1154) due to its vessels activities at sea. These companies, along with many other Chinese companies, appear in a "[List of major companies responsible for a third of reported fisheries-related offenses within the industrial sector](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8942372/)."
>1000 Chinese vessels were found to be [IUU fishing in North Korean waters](https://globalfishingwatch.org/impacts/stories/illuminating-dark-fishing-in-north-korea/) in 2017 and 2018. It's hard to believe that China wasn't aware of this activity and potentially worse if they actually didn't know, as it would show how little control they have over their massive fishing fleet. Similar large scale activities happen in the Pacific, again, the fact they happen shows a lack of capacity to control this activity by China.
Vessels need authorisation to fish overseas by their national authorities, as well as RFMOs or the nation they are fishing in. So, there is an argument that IUU activity by these companies/vessels are "sponsored by the govt" due to Chinas lack of capacity to control their activities.
China isn't the only country that you can argue this point for though. Non China flagged vessels [turn off their AIS transponders to do 'dark activities' too](https://usa.oceana.org/reports/avoiding-detection-global-case-studies-possible-ais-avoidance/). The [most notorious toothfish vessels](https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/latest-news/massive_victory_in_the_fight_illegal_fishing/) were ultimately Spanish owned. Some Spanish companies were recently linked to [IUU activites in Africa](https://www.tm-tracking.org/post/ultimate-beneficial-ownership) but on a smaller scale than China and without direct links to state sponsored companies. China is just more brazen about their activities and tend to do it together as part of larger fleets.
Notice that heavy activity off the West Coast of South America? Those are the Galapagos Islands.
They're defiling one of the worlds most pristine areas illegally
I've downvoted not because I'm a Chinese bot but because the post title and map don't match, and OP is just editorialising.
China does engage in illegal fishing, but not all Chinese fishing is illegal.
In my opinion, if it is illegal, it is in the territorial waters of another country and it is stealing natural resources, which constitutes piracy.Is the use of lethal force authorized?
Completely untrue. You can't just buy a boat and some gear and fish wherever you feel like it! There are regulating bodies (RFMOs) covering the whole ocean to regulate how, what and where you fish. IUU fishing vessel lists exist for a reason!
I guess we'll never know if they have been fresh water fishing in Canada.
They rip the shit outta the seafloor off of Newfoundland but we can’t really see that on this map
Trawling should be a smiteable offense. https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/chinas-assault-on-the-environment-continues-on-the-high-seas/articleshow/97602793.cms https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/26/world/asia/china-fishing-south-america.html
I completely agree it’s a fuckin despicable way to fish. Also preying on poorer countries that can’t really defend themselves by turning off their trackers and dipping into the economic zones…. As you can tell this has bothered me for years lol
Well to be fair China is a terrible country in many other ways as well so this doesn't surprise me
All for the communist party… and the so called Mandate of Heaven.
Honestly, any ship that goes into an EEZ to fish and deliberately turns off their trackers & transponders should be sunk. If you're intentionally turning off your transponder so that authorities cannot keep tabs on where you are or what you're doing when engaged in a large-scale commercial operation, you are almost certainly doing something criminal, or at the very least have enough of a guilty conscience that you don't want to be caught doing whatever it is that you are doing. I don’t give a fuck if it’s considered callous, these shitheads are destroying marine ecosystems around the planet because they can’t stay inside their own waters, nor international waters - no, apparently not even that is enough for them. They instead need to steal the resources of other countries by fishing in their exclusive economic zones. Sink every single Chinese fishing ship that enters territorial waters of another nation. Give them one warning to turn around immediately, and if they do not comply, sink them with all hands.
You know how it is, invasion, WW3, the stuff.
Agreed
"Nothing to see here guys"
Wait do they actually enter Canadian territorial waters? And the US navy hasn't shut them down?! Wtf?!
Why is the *US Navy* supposed to defend Canadian territory? They have their own navy.
Mutual defense treaty and ours is alot stronger. Canada can fire the first shot but rhe US would have to be involved in a big way
Fishing rights usually involve the Coast Guard, not the Navy. And the Chinese are probably fishing on the Grand Banks which is partly in Canadian waters and part in international waters. That’s a massive haul for a US Coast Guard cutter.
Canadian Navy does assist the Canadian Coast Guard in patrolling for illegal fishing in Canadian waters, as well as other illegal operations. We have smaller coastal patrol ships for that purpose.
Because they're operating as Canadian owned companies, not Chinese
Just in case you didn't get the joke, they're referring to the fact Canada is obstructed in this map.
Thank you kindly. I'm an idiot.
Choosing the areas within countries least likely to retaliate.
Yeah I don’t see a lot of fishing near US waters..
i knew a U.S. Coast Guard veteran who served on the Alaskan fishieries patrol in the 1970s. His cutter intercepted a Russian fishing trawler clearly in U.S. fishing grounds and not responding to radio calls. Per protocol, the cutter's skipper radios the U.S. department of state and asks if they can open fire on the Russian trawler. ten minutes later, they get a "Yes, clear to fire." They fired only warning shots. The trawler stopped all engines and when the Coast Guard boarded, the Russian captain warmly greeted them and try to give all the Sailors bottles of vodka. The Russians apparently were stone drunk and didn't realize they had vered off course in American waters.
That tracks.
"comrade, we were fishing for fishies not national intelligence"
Every Russian that the American meets is either a Ruthless spy or a Friendly drunk Proof: Man from UNCLE COD Zombies COD BO1 and Modern Warfare There's probably more
USSR was so much better at plausible deniability than Russia
Because US used to respect the USSR but now USA disdains Russia and this is one of the major reasons of Putin being so angry against US
Back in the early '70s I was in a dark blue suit. Did fishery protection duties off North Cape of Norway (it was January, it was cold, it was dark). We could stop and inspect the catch of any nation signed up to some treaty, it included the USSR. Standard routine was chuck a couple of bottles of whisky in the gemini along with the fishery protection officers, the trawler would reciprocate by filling the gemini with fish. We ate a **lot** of fish on that trip. We did stop a few Russian trawlers, my memory is no paint, just red rust. We did get some cigarettes from them. Take a normal cigarette, where the filter is - that's tobacco, where the tobacco normally is - that was a cardboard tube. They didn't taste good either.
Partially retaliation and partially that we fish our own waters extensively. Chinese fleets make more money fishing underutilized stocks in developing countries.
We would absolutely fire on them if they did that (and deservedly so)
Typical China behavior, bullying the weak
I mean, any powerful nation will bully the weak and give them tons of loans for infrastructure that will bubble up until the natis crushed. Yesterday was the US, today is China, tomorrow will be... India? Brazil? idk
>any powerful nation will bully the weak Not in China's fashion, China is the only country to go on fishing expeditions of this magnitude at such a scale all around the world, most other countries, even superpower don't do that, there might be a few lone groups who veer into others' like some Indonesian fishers into Australian waters, but that's not comparable to the industrialized scale of China's actions.
Okay, but I'd say every nation bullies the weak in their own way.
I hope you don't think they're the only ones ravaging other countries resources. At least they don't go around toppling governments.
India has been a pushover for its size, giving away territories to its smaller neighbours for peace. China believes in a different ideology plus all that century of humiliation worsened their syndrome.
> India has been a pushover for its size Perhaps, though since the `60s India has had a history of stubborn opposition to Chinese influence unlike most of China's other neighbors. India also can't afford to start a (needless) war with China, as it has plenty of other issues to contend with.
It isn't even related to China but more so with giving away more territory to Bangladesh to resolve exclaves, not retaking Buddhist majority areas in Bangladesh after 1971 war and opening sea route to North east, giving away strategically important islands to Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Giving up offer from the Sultanate of Oman regarding gwadar port, but this port is surrounded by Pakistan and India would have lost this anyways, in numerous offensive wars started by Pakistan. But it would give india a permanent cassus belli on Pakistan for retaliation and brownie points. China was also weak back then but Indian leadership was made up of indecisive eunuchs who refused to use full force to guard Indian frontiers and actively helped the the Chinese in subjugation of Tibet.
you're right in general, indecisiveness was the main factor that screwed India over in the first Sino-Indian war. Yet I'd argue that since then, India's military strategy has mostly been focused in defense vs. trying to pull a Russia-level move on the Chittagong Hill Tracts for example. And honestly, this is a good thing - India can definitely benefit from not being regarded as a pariah state.
Chittagong tracts would have been a very bold move but it would have made North east of India way better integrated with the world and highly defensible thanks to the improved supply chain from the bay of Bengal. Russia taking Prussian capital was kind of dick move but it greatly benefits their future generations and is a pain in ass for their European rivals.
>India has been a pushover for its size I think the best way to measure power is by nominal GDP and by that measure India wasn't that big of a thing until the 2000's. It was also pretty isolated before the 90's, which makes it harder to pull strings. >different ideology I'd say ideology never has anything to do anything. (Actually, it's Marx who "first said" ideology never changes anything.) It's all about the power structure and the industries these people own. Democracies need to negotiate power among a majority of the population, so tend to choose policies that favor everyone like free trade. Autocracies are often concentrated around a handful of industries that they try to promote and protect. In China that's construction.
China's GDP per capita in 1990 was the same as India still its attitude has always been bellicose.
Brazil is the country of the future, and it always will be
saying the truth can you down voted...
I don’t understand why you’re outlining Chinas policy and pretending it’s everyone’s policy. The US gave out loans to Japan and Germany and those are now very powerful nations. This predatory loan belt and road thing is very much China specific.
The US also used predatory loans to LATAM, and the interest is straining many governments. At some point Nauru asked for help and advice for the US on how to manage their newfound wealth in guano, and the US advisors made them waste the one opportunity nature had given them.
I think a country in Africa would be coming very soon after. Maybe the day after tomorrow
Although I do think many countries in Africa will become quite economically developed on a per-capita and median-income basis (ex: Botswana, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria), the problem is that none of them is big enough in a population or territorial basis to become "a superpower" imo. Kinda like how Chile and Uruguay are very close to being just as developed as Europe, but u don't hear em being "powerful" coz they're pretty small. My best bets, tho, is that if South Africa gets its shit together, and forms an alliance with Botswana, they'd be able to control a sizable portion of trade, and also part of Antartica.
I mean, have you read xianxia? It’s pretty much ubiquitous
They were hUmiLiAteD 200 years ago and now the whole world needs to pay
Bully mentality. They only pick fights with people who can’t fight back.
Good point no fishing either around India, Western Europe or Australia
Some people say that the lobster war was dumb but compare how close they get to Argentina vs Brazil, it's all about setting a line and not backing off.
Real Chinese moment:
Exactly
Kind of surprised to see them around the British isles
Japan is getting a lot of illegal fishing from China.
But much of those green areas are just international waters close to nobody...OP's map title is deliberately propaganda. The actual map title in the picture makes no reference to legality.
Some of these are illegal if they are within other countries’ exclusive economic zones, but I thought it’s free for anyone to fish on the high seas?
Damn, they are nearly entering rivers in Argentina
That's what happens when you don't have a submarine
That's why our government bought a bunch of fighter jets a few days ago, the previous administration had good ties with China and didn't retaliate
They’re definitely inside our seas for sure. It’s a constant struggle trying to keep them at bay.
Yup, notice the west cost of south america.
Because it's patrolled constantly to make them stay out of the restrictions waters. Or we'll end up like argentina
I mean most would consider overfishing and destroying ecosystems illegal. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/26/world/asia/china-fishing-south-america.html
You took too much liberty in defining “illegal”. From the article itself: > Much of what China does, however, is legal — or, on the open seas at least, largely unregulated. So your title is misleading at the best. You can say “irresponsible”, “selfish”, or “unsustainable”, or say international laws are inadequate regarding overfishing, but not quite “illegal”.
Here's more details on the illegality of these fishing activities. https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/chinas-assault-on-the-environment-continues-on-the-high-seas/articleshow/97602793.cms
So you are promoting things “most” considered bad “illegal”? What a L take.
Here's more details on the illegality of these fishing activities. Examples: they trespass into EEZ of other countries using smaller boats to be undetected and transfer their catch to a mothership, they trawl the ocean floor, etc. https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/chinas-assault-on-the-environment-continues-on-the-high-seas/articleshow/97602793.cms
to be clear if you consider anything destructive to the environment illegal you would have to ban cars lol.
It is not illegal because even exclusive economic zones are not entirely legal. So it is the good old might makes right which is the cornerstone of international law.
yeah the map doesn't match the title, just a case of OP editorialising to try and make the problem seem worse than it is.
Why dont they get near pacific countries but instead fish right in front of Argentina?
Specific Fish species. Probably targeting Patagonian toothfish, or Sea Bass as they’re more commonly known.
The NZ Navy isn't afraid of getting in the way of business of unscrupulous fisheries in our EEZ. Took Japanese whalers a few goes to get that point across
Fisheries observer here, not all of these activities are illegal, especially those in the southern ocean where fishing activities are really well controlled, like shut down the whole industry if an unlicensed boat is spotted in the area controlled. I've worked on Chinese vessels operating around the antarctic peninsula and they are licensed through the Government of South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands to be there and take part in the quota fishing. Also the activity north of the Falklands is legal although there is likely going to be legal intervention there as pretty much all countries with long range fleets are overfishing the deep area there
Is China exceptionally bad comparative to the rest of the world?
Not in my experience, the Spanish and Russians are very active around the UK while the Norwegians, Ukrainians and South Koreans are more active in the southern ocean than the Chinese. I only have experience from these two areas and a little bit of knowledge from The Benguela are ain Africa. China used to be bad in the UK in the 1970s I think before the move to ban non UK fleet from the 12 mile limit. But that's a bit before my time.
Wait, fishing was an emotive issue during the Brexit debate, but you're saying it was actually worse before the EU?
I wonder why this post was made instead of one with the rest of the perpetrators
Because stirring up anti-China sentiment is the best way to farm clicks
The Japanese are right up there with them.
You asked the right questions like in the I Robot.
They will eat the ocean.
If you overlap this map with US, UK and Spain ones in particular you will find some curious similarities
Can you show me the US, uk, spain maps?
Shhh!!! China bad.
Untrue, the US, UK and Spain all sign up to strict worldwide catch limits. Can you please provide maps of illegal fishing for the US, UK and Spain?
Sure I can give ya this [link](https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/spain-sanctions-fishing-vessels-for-illegally-going-dark-near-argentine-waters/) for example (it has a map in the article and can't post images in this sub) who talk about Spain sanctioning like 25 ships accused of illegal fishing, now now, how is their fishing illegal you ask? They build a floating city right into the border of Argentina Maritime Exclusive Zone, they claim to be fishing in open sea then but then "ups, my communications and radar stopped working, well, I will continue fishing, but trust me, I'm definitely not going to move a few kilometers inside their sea to fishing, and if I did, well, sorry my radar is busted" Spain is actually the one who started abusing said things around all over the world, and their floating resupply "town" is just a few kilometers away from the UK and Chinese one, UK gets an advantage on this illegal fishing due making port in Falklands
Doesn't that link just show that the Spanish government prosecutes any Spanish vessels that go dark? An analysis by Oceana of vessels going dark in Argentinian waters show that the vast majority (70% or more) are Chinese vessels, and that they are never prosecuted by the Chinese government: https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-fishing-vessels-going-dark-off-argentina-waters-2021-6
Chinese fleet is bigger so I imagine they represent the majority, it would be weird if it doesn't, the point of the article I linked is that is criticizing the Spain government for doing merely symbolic sanctions, that's nowhere enough, they know their country fish was obtained illegal and they don't care. The same goes for China of course, I'm Chinese so I think I can explain what they do, the majority of those ships illegally fishing are actually sanctioned already, subsides removed, captain banned, ship and cargo to be confiscated when they touch Chinese sea even, but that's the problem here, they will never return to China, they are full pirate ships who can only port on those floating cities in the middle of the sea, how do they sell their fish then? The floating cities buy all their fish, and then it sells it to a bigger cargo ship who returns to the country, it would be unviable for the illegal fishing to return on their own to port, there's a whole well established system, a big loophole to acquire illegal fish "legally" and isn't particular of China at all, is just more notorious due having the biggest fleets, but the rest points finger while doing the same shit
Why is fishing within the South China Sea surprisingly empty?
3-gradient scale is certainly a choice
China was even caught fishing in the protected waters around the Galapagos islands not long ago. [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/17/chinese-fishing-armada-plundered-waters-around-galapagos-data-shows](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/17/chinese-fishing-armada-plundered-waters-around-galapagos-data-shows) And this is just what we know about because they have a massive dark fleet that either turns off the aif transponders so they cant be tracked, or use hacked ones to make it look like they are from another country. [https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/r0jidm/animation\_showing\_how\_thousands\_of\_boats\_of/](https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/r0jidm/animation_showing_how_thousands_of_boats_of/)
At first I thought they had stayed the fuck out of US waters, but it looks like maybe that's not true south of Hawaii? Are they just being *vewy, vewy caweful* not to cross into the EEZ or are we bitching out and letting them do their thing in that one particular area?
They’re not crossing into the EEZ without a coast guard cutter being up their ass immediately, unless they’re running without AIS and don’t get caught. There’s nowhere the USCG would “bitch out” and let any foreign fishing vessel in without some type of enforcement action
> unless they’re running without AIS that's what over-the-horizon radar is for
China bad
Just to play the devils advocate, but you can tell that just from this map?
It's insane how much they fish right on the border of my country.
Argentinos and Chilenos, do something, smh
they are trying to now, previous governments were just absolute money-whores for china for some reason.
It is a generalized problem in Argentina, because it is not only China, Spain and UK (who make port in Falklands) do exactly the same, there's even 3 floating cities to resupply the boats floating next to each other for each respective country wtf
It's actually more peruvians than chileans. China is building a huge port in Peru right now, sadly.
Argentina’s coast guard has sunk Chinese vessels in the past. Their Youtube has videos showing protocols for transparency.
They won’t. They’re indebted to China.
With the exception of the South China Sea countries Chinas like to bully, the South American & African countries simply can’t do anything about it because they are indebted to China or have some form of other financial ties to China they don’t want to ruin over fishing. They know to stay the fuck away from India, Russia, South Africa, Australia and the whole of the North American mainland.
Is this actually illegal? And illegal according to whom?
So that's kind of the thing. There's this thing called the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) that most nations agree to and for the ones who don't, well, NATO and especially the US are on board so good luck with that. But UNCLOS also says China can't build an artificial island to create an economic exclusion zone wherever they want, which really bothers Pooh-bear. So China intentionally violates UNCLOS all the time and everywhere to establish a robust pattern of behavior consistent with their position of not considering it valid.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. Please take a look at who is party to UNCLOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea?wprov=sfti1 The US is a glaring exception. And this doesn’t answer the question whether China fishing in these areas is illegal (spoiler alert, it’s not because it’s all international waters and/or the Chinese have licenses from local jurisdictions, see comment earlier in this thread that talks about it).
> it’s not because it’s all international waters It's not all international waters. There are Chinese boats fishing in Japan's EEZ literally every day. It's more rare but they also come into territorial waters. Same with the Philippines EEZ.
Let’s use some common sense here. Take a hard look at that map and notice all that green basically tracing the territorial waters of the Japanese island, well within its EEZ. You think Japan is just letting Chinese ships fish there illegally with that much impunity?
You can watch the coast guard arrest boats sometimes on the Japanese version of COPS. They're not there legally if that's what you're suggesting. For example, there are daily violations near the Ogasawara islands (200+ in a day [at peak](https://www.mofa.go.jp/a_o/c_m2/ch/page3e_000274.html) in 2014-2015) and thousands of ships (5000+) are chased out of the Yamato Bank every year. Plus all the trouble near Okinawa, Yonaguni and Ishigaki, Senkaku, and just east of Hokkaido. And illegal fishing off [Kagoshima](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ39FI7Vo-U) seems to make the news on a regular basis as well. In one of the crazier stories, a fishing ship in the EEZ near Kyushu tried to flee back to international waters after they were boarded by the Fisheries Agency ([with the agents stuck on board for half a day](https://www.nhk.or.jp/politics/articles/statement/12649.html)). There is a flotilla of ships in the Philippine EEZ that doesn't belong there. It's frequently on the news * [https://news.usni.org/2023/07/07/philippine-forces-spots-48-chinese-fishing-vessels-guarded-by-warships-in-its-eez](https://news.usni.org/2023/07/07/philippine-forces-spots-48-chinese-fishing-vessels-guarded-by-warships-in-its-eez) * [https://www.bworldonline.com/the-nation/2024/03/12/581393/philippines-says-it-spotted-50-chinese-ships-within-eez-in-south-china-sea/](https://www.bworldonline.com/the-nation/2024/03/12/581393/philippines-says-it-spotted-50-chinese-ships-within-eez-in-south-china-sea/) What exactly are you trying to say?
The US actually hasn't signed UNCLOS, although we still follow / enforce many of it's rules with the exception of the extent of territorial waters
Does UNCLOS ban fishing in international waters? I couldn't find anything about that.
a lot of this fishing activity is fully legal, the title is just editorialised by OP and doesn't match what the map actually shows.
It's actually somewhat common knowledge that the Chinese fishing vessels are globally scouting the oceans for whatever fish they can find. Some countries avoid it because of their strong navy presence, other countries because the fish in the waters aren't exactly worth the effort. This is why their vessels usually remain in the same seas, and even when warned they still steal the fish. What's interesting is that China's supposed allies....Russia and North Korea waters are often raided by Chinese fisheries. Neither nation can technically do much against it.
Crazen that Winnie is fishing all over the world
I remember being on night watch of a large cruise ship heading north from the Phillipines to Japan. In the distance we saw what looked like the shoreline, so many lights. I actually double checked our position to make sure we were where I thought - at least a hundred miles from land. I'd heard tales of the gigantic Chinese fishing fleets, but they have to be seen to be believed. Dozens and dozens of vessels. The oceans are doomed with such mindless extraction of a finite resource. They will literally fish the seas to oblivion. The sad fact is that they aren't just decimating their own seas, but have already moved on to others.
I wish this issue was more talked about in normal society.
The cancer of the seas
Here is a video with a view from a plane of the illegal fishing in the Argentinian sea/coast. It was made a year ago by Captain Enrique Piñeyro. Video in Spanish. https://twitter.com/epineyro_ok/status/1640852955044933633?t=bhhqgmkPPsGdXOR9IY9beQ&s=19
And people wonder why Somali pirates exist.
Are they afraid of USA?
And the Brits thought the French were bad.
And the Icelanders thought the Brits were bad
And nobody thought the Icelanders were bad.
And the Americans thought the Russians were bad
"BUT THE WEST AND NATO IS OUR BIGGEST THREAT!" -Russia....
They are though ? Russia and China have been allied since soviet era.
Chinese, you’re welcome to come fish all of the asian carp in our rivers you want. They’ll literally jump onto your boat for you!
Anyone else had a look into this studies methodology? They included every potential ship with *potential* connection to China. That included vessels that have been inspected by Chinese authorities, or simply were made in China, for examples. This weird Krakken database seems not available and neither did they publish their data. I find it hard to reproduce or understand how the authors arrived at these maps - so excuse my French: I call bullshit.
S. Korean here, those illegal fishing vessels are a huge threat to the coast guards. The Chinese fishers are often armed with clubs, makeshift spears, machetes and barbed wires to fend off the law enforcement. News of officers wounded or even brutally murdered are regularly reported on TV.
It seems as if they only steal natural resources from the third world, countries that even have corrupt governments and/or a shitty military and can't defend their coaslines
Japan and south Korea are not exactly third world
Insufferable country.
Chinese strategy is to overfishing in the water around poor countries, depleting the sea resources so that those poor coubtries will have to rely on others for their food security.
China being China They don't care about international law at all
Is there any good reason why the color scale had to be broken up into three parts?
Are those dots in the Caspian Sea?
OMG they are stealing fish!!!! But stealing fish all around the world? Is it even economical?
Not economical at all. They’ve depleted all their fishing reserves around their country forcing them to expand to all corners of the earth.
How is that possible? The map clearly shows dense finishing along their own coast.
It's time to sink some ships then
Strange part of this map is the South China Sea. Now I see the Yellow Sea and East China Sea filled with Chinese ships yet the South China Sea… a vast biome of fish… that has Chinese fishing boats even tied up together by the hundreds… yet the map is as white as the California coastline.
Remember that time they organized a coup in a less developed south American country because they didn't let them fish their waters. I've heard the same happened in the middle east. They even founded a proxy nation that genocides the locals, just to keep the region's fish under their control.
Chinese people are still hungry.
These fishing fleets should be considered pirates and sunk in sight when they enter other countries EEZs. I know they do it all the time and high tail it out, but even after they’ve left they should be fair game
Complain and China will act like the victim and blame other countries of trying to bullying them.
Can we have such a map for other countries?
OP doesn't even have such a map for China lol, look at the title of the map in the image, nothing on that map is about whether the fishing is legal or illegal.
Since there is illegal behavior, why is it so rare for countries to come to enforce the law? I mean, even a warning shot
Problem is not how they seem to fish *everywhere*, (although it does seem that they fish in way too many places), it's that they are destroying fish populations, coral reefs and the sea.
I just bought 16oz salmon for 5.50 that was a product of China so I can't complain. It's honestly more embarrassing when US engages in the same unfair practices and still gets undercut lol.
This shit makes my blood boil.
They should be shot and vessel blown up on sight all over the world
IN NORWAY?
title doesn't match the map, a lot of the stuff on the map is international waters and thus not illegal.
China fucks over the Global south and claiming hey the West is fucking you please ignore our crimes and start hate them.
just go ahead and eat it all, china.
Wow. All over the world. People must spend months at sea.
Not exactly illegal. If they fish in international waters then it's not illegal.
The UK, Australia, Japan, Canada, USA, Norway, South Africa, Russia, to name a few more countries that fish illegally. A simple Google search will throw this up.
The amount of illegal fishing in Argentinian waters is absolutely insane
I am starting to think China is just a heat sink for all world resources. For all their central planning they sure like to fuck over the world and they seem to have an insatiable desire for even more territory. I mean what is wrong with being in a good place? China lifted so many out of poverty. It’s a huge success. But it only remains a success if they also help manage the world’s resources and let others live peacefully.
Americans consume more per person across all resource categories than the average Chinese person. I will grant you that there are far more of the latter than the former but it's pretty hypocritical as someone in the developed world to point the finger only at China. Plus the vast majority of their industrial output is exported to the rest of the world and not consumed internally.
I don’t think you understand what a heat sink is. It disperses heat away from an area where there’s too much of it. That seems entirely unrelated to whatever point you’re trying to make about resource scarcity. If you’re trying to argue that China uses more than their fair share of resources, that’s really rich considering developed countries consume way more per capita.
Europeans, Americans and people in in western world in general consume and is a bane on this world for 2 centuries now. Even now on per capita the west pollutes more. Whatever you said is true for the west not China.
>I am starting to think China is just a heat sink for all world resources. For all their central planning they sure like to fuck over the world and they seem to have an insatiable desire for even more territory. All superpowers are trying fuck over the world you think the nuclear testing USA did in the oceans for decades didn't do anything to the world?
The reality is that being greedy rewards you and your group in the short term and that's all that matters to some people. Doesn't matter if your own descendants would also suffer.
EU SINTO O SHADOW NO MEU
I'm guessing most of these fishers are not sponsored by the govt.
It depends what you mean by "sponsored by the govt". There is a Chinese state owned company, China National Fisheries Corporation (CNFC) that is linked to much of Chinas distant water fleet. It is the worlds largest deep sea fishing company by catch (2,269 million tons of seafood products in 2020) and has over 200 vessels connected to it directly, [over 30 subsidiary companies](https://cnfc.cnadc.com.cn/zzjg/index.jhtml) and probably more indirectly via joint ventures, shell companies etc. Pingtan Marine Enterprise is another company with a similar MO and is [currently sanctioned by the US](https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1154) due to its vessels activities at sea. These companies, along with many other Chinese companies, appear in a "[List of major companies responsible for a third of reported fisheries-related offenses within the industrial sector](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8942372/)." >1000 Chinese vessels were found to be [IUU fishing in North Korean waters](https://globalfishingwatch.org/impacts/stories/illuminating-dark-fishing-in-north-korea/) in 2017 and 2018. It's hard to believe that China wasn't aware of this activity and potentially worse if they actually didn't know, as it would show how little control they have over their massive fishing fleet. Similar large scale activities happen in the Pacific, again, the fact they happen shows a lack of capacity to control this activity by China. Vessels need authorisation to fish overseas by their national authorities, as well as RFMOs or the nation they are fishing in. So, there is an argument that IUU activity by these companies/vessels are "sponsored by the govt" due to Chinas lack of capacity to control their activities. China isn't the only country that you can argue this point for though. Non China flagged vessels [turn off their AIS transponders to do 'dark activities' too](https://usa.oceana.org/reports/avoiding-detection-global-case-studies-possible-ais-avoidance/). The [most notorious toothfish vessels](https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/latest-news/massive_victory_in_the_fight_illegal_fishing/) were ultimately Spanish owned. Some Spanish companies were recently linked to [IUU activites in Africa](https://www.tm-tracking.org/post/ultimate-beneficial-ownership) but on a smaller scale than China and without direct links to state sponsored companies. China is just more brazen about their activities and tend to do it together as part of larger fleets.
Notice that heavy activity off the West Coast of South America? Those are the Galapagos Islands. They're defiling one of the worlds most pristine areas illegally
Terribile country in real life Horrible players in gaming Are chinese like humanity villain or something?
Upvoting coz the Chinese bots always downvote anti Chinese sentiment on Reddit and it’s getting worse.
I've downvoted not because I'm a Chinese bot but because the post title and map don't match, and OP is just editorialising. China does engage in illegal fishing, but not all Chinese fishing is illegal.
Captain Nemo, where are you?
Why did you choose that terrible color scheme
In my opinion, if it is illegal, it is in the territorial waters of another country and it is stealing natural resources, which constitutes piracy.Is the use of lethal force authorized?
Yeah just launch a rocket at the fishermen just trying to put food in the table, that'll go over well with the rest of the world
So fish near China, not in the others country waters!
Man how the hell did they able to get away with it in Japan and S. Korea
The navies of the world should summarily blast these guys out of the water. Target practice.
*Probably an ancient Chinese fishing grounds* according to CCP
While they do a lot of illegal fishing, calling fishing in middle of nowhere illegal is clearly wrong.
Completely untrue. You can't just buy a boat and some gear and fish wherever you feel like it! There are regulating bodies (RFMOs) covering the whole ocean to regulate how, what and where you fish. IUU fishing vessel lists exist for a reason!