China’s fake fishing boats swarm West Philippine Sea – lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines — Aside from flooding the markets with fake products, the Chinese are now swarming Philippine waters on “fake” fishing boats manned by coast guard and naval personnel, Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said yesterday.

“China has always been in the past been known as notorious in manufacturing fake products that they sell in markets around the world. But now, they apparently have fake fishing boats – disguised as fishing boats – deployed in the West Philippine Sea,” Barbers said.

“Now, they are deploying and crowding Philippine waters, particularly in the West Philippine Sea, with a lot of military vessels disguised as fishing boats and manned by fake fishermen,” Barbers, chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs, said.

He said Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro told US defense chief Lloyd Austin about it during the latter’s visit to Palawan recently.

Barbers said the deployment by the China Coast Guard and the People’s Liberation Army of vessels disguised as fishing boats in the West Philippine Sea is one of the “covert tactics” of Beijing “to maintain and establish permanent presence of their Coast Guard or Navy personnel in the WPS.”

Furthermore, China may have also sent military intelligence officers disguised as workers or personnel of Philippine offshore gaming operators, Barbers said.

He added there was nothing new about China’s deceptive tactics, which included its “self-drawn-out” nine-dash line and 11-dash line territorial claim deemed inconsistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

“The Hague-based decision, constituted under UNCLOS, ruled that China’s claim of historic rights to resources in areas falling within its invisible demarcation (in the West Philippine Sea) ‘had no basis in law and is without legal effect,’” he added.

He bewailed China’s demanding respect from the international community even if it continues to flout international law by intruding into the 200-mile exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, often using force and intimidation.