MANILA, Philippines — Hainan’s maritime militia is China’s most professional and receives extensive subsidies to encourage frequent operations in the Spratly Islands, according to the latest United States Department of Defense Annual Report to Congress.
The People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia (PAFMM) is a subset of China’s national militia, an armed reserve force of civilians available for mobilization. Militia units organize around towns, villages, urban sub-districts and enterprises and vary widely in composition and mission.
In the South China Sea, the PAFMM plays a major role in coercive activities to achieve China’s political goals without fighting, part of a broader Chinese military theory that sees confrontational operations short of war as an effective means of accomplishing political objectives, according to the report.
The Hainan provincial government, adjacent to the South China Sea, ordered the building of 84 large militia fishing vessels with reinforced hulls and ammunition storage, which the militia received by the end of 2016, along with extensive subsidies to encourage frequent operations in the Spratly Islands, according to the 2019 Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China.
“This particular PAFMM unit is also China’s most professional. Its forces are paid salaries independent of any clear commercial fishing responsibilities and recruited from recently separated veterans,” the report said.
The militia has played significant roles in a number of military campaigns and coercive incidents over the years, including the 2009 harassment of the USNS Impeccable conducting normal operations, the 2012 Scarborough Reef standoff, the 2014 Haiyang Shiyou-981 oil rig standoff and a large incursion in waters near the Senkakus in 2016.
A large number of PAFMM vessels train with and assist the People’s Liberation Army Navy and the China Coast Guard in tasks such as safeguarding maritime claims, surveillance and reconnaissance, fisheries protection, logistic support, and search and rescue.
“The government subsidizes various local and provincial commercial organizations to operate militia vessels to perform ‘official’ missions on an ad hoc basis outside of their regular civilian commercial activities,” the report said.
Gregory Poling, director of Washington-based think tank Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative and a fellow with the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Chinese fishing vessel that sank a Philippine boat and left the 22 crew to the elements is the “inevitable result of Beijing deputizing hundreds of fishing boats as a militia force.”
The incident, according to Poling, will happen again because there are hundreds of Chinese state-directed militia vessels in the Spratlys, but Beijing should not be allowed to hide that fact.