TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Analysts have expressed concern about two recent instances of Chinese fishing boats gathering in large numbers in the East China Sea.
On Christmas Day, 2,000 Chinese fishing boats sailed to the East China Sea and formed two 466-kilometer-long parallel lines, almost in the shape of “a reverse L shape,” The New York Times reported. This was followed by another incident last Sunday, when approximately 1,400 Chinese fishing boats congregated in the East China Sea to form a 200-mile-long rectangle.
Jason Wang, the chief operating officer of ingeniSPACE, a geospatial intelligence firm, said the operations could be attempts by China to practice obstructing foreign ships or a move to assert territorial claims, per The New York Times. “They’re scaling up, and that scaling indicates their ability to do better command and control of civilian ships,” Wang said.
Large numbers of Chinese fishing boats could hamper US military ships operating in the region, The New York Times cited Lonnie Henley, a former US intelligence officer and non-resident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, as saying. “It does mark an improvement in their ability to marshal and control a large number of militia vessels,” Henley added.
Thomas Shugart, a former US naval officer and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, pointed out that the small boats could also be used “as missile and torpedo decoys, overwhelming radars or drone sensors with too many targets.”
Andrew S. Erickson, a professor at the US Naval War College, speculated that the formations could be a demonstration of Beijing’s “opposition to Japan” or a rehearsal for potential conflicts with Japan or Taiwan. However, he said they were likely “an at-sea mobilization and exercise of maritime militia forces.”
A CSIS report published in October highlighted China’s use of fishing vessels to conduct gray zone operations in the Indo-Pacific, calling them “instruments of political warfare at sea.” In 2023, two backup submarine cables that connect Taiwan to Matsu were damaged by Chinese fishing vessels last year, though it was unclear whether the incident was deliberate.
Taiwan has expanded the Coast Guard fleet and increased patrols in territorial waters due to China’s ramped-up gray zone tactics. The Ocean Affairs Council plans to build up to 147 Coast Guard vessels by 2031.
Last month, OAC Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said surveillance and response capabilities must be strengthened and called for closer cooperation with regional partners, such as Japan, including joint training and expanded maritime drills.
