‘Sheltering from storm’: China’s worn-out excuse for poaching

China steals reefs and fish like a common thief. A thief breaks in when the homeowner is asleep, distracted or complacent. If discovered the thief alibis, demands acquiescence and even aggresses. That’s China’s modus in coastal states’ exclusive economic zones worldwide. It demeans its standing. Victims come to associate China not with civilization but barbarism.

China trespassing Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef in the Philippines’ 200-mile EEZ is plain thievery. Circumstances favor the 220 Chinese fishing militia vessels. Filipinos are busy staving off the killer virus from Wuhan. Their high leaders are hailing Beijing’s vaccine donation. Their maritime defenders are discouraged from active defense.

Sighted March 7, the intruders are in phalanx along the reef 175 miles from Palawan. Some undaunted Filipino officials protested. At once the Chinese embassy claimed that the vessels are merely sheltering from storm.

That lame excuse was concocted likely by a landlubber from inner China. As tropical islanders, Filipinos know better. It is “amihan” season in the West Philippine (South China) Sea. Temperatures are mild, rains light and waters calm for distant fishing. Global weather bulletins mentioned no storm. “Habagat”, or southwest monsoon of heavy rains and rough seas, is not till May-November.

Three weeks later the Chinese trawlers are still “sheltering” at Julian Felipe. No “storm” lasts that long. The worst “siyam-siyam” is only what the term connotes: nine days.

“Innocent shelter” is an old lie. China used it in 1994 in erecting shanties supposedly for its and Filipino fishers on Panganiban (Mischief) Reef 120 miles from Palawan. By the following year China had concreted a naval fortress with helipads. From there People’s Liberation Army warships now menace Filipino surveyors in oil- and gas-rich Recto (Reed) Bank.

China feigns “innocent shelter” elsewhere. Last year 350 of its trawlers swarmed Ecuador’s Galapagos EEZ to poach as before. Alarmed about their marine ecosystems as well, neighbors Peru, Panama, Costa Rica and Colombia told them to leave. China’s embassy in Quito alibied that the vessels were merely lined up in protection against bad weather in international waters at the edge of Galapagos.

Satellites proved otherwise, The Economist reported this week. At least 550 times for over a day the trawlers shut off their GPS-based automatic identification systems that international law requires to be always kept on. That they sneaked into the EEZ was proven by the new Hawkeye technology. They were detected via their satellite phones, walkie-talkies and navigation and collision-avoidance radars that not even pirates switch off. For a decade now China has been stealing exotic species at Galapagos, 8760 miles across the Pacific from its mainland. Favorite loot are the endangered hammerhead and whale shark.

China has worn out its “innocent shelter” lie as well in West Africa in the Atlantic, 6320 miles from home. Its trawlers have overfished not only Liberia’s EEZ but also shallow artisanal fishing grounds. Sierra Leone is fighting back with lawsuits and confiscations of poaching vessels. Fishers in neighboring Senegal and Ghana are protesting the deluge of registrations by Chinese fishing craft.

Closer to Manila, authorities in Palau and Indonesia do not buy the “innocent shelter” excuse. They shoot and burn intruding ships. China also encroaches the EEZs of Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam. Where resistance is weak like in the Philippines, poachers strike again and again.

Beijing disavows control over its 17,000-strong distant-water fishing fleet. That’s incredible in a surveillance state where 1.35 billion citizens are closely monitored. Various intelligence agencies report that the PLA has militarized a third of the fleet. The fisheries militia is funded, equipped and armed for spying and sea aggression. It complements the use of the civilian coast guard for territorial expansion. Beijing recently authorized its coast guard to board and fire on foreign vessels in others’ EEZs that it illegally claims.

Exposed at Julian Felipe, Chinese embassy propagandized that the reef is part of its territory. Of no import to China is the fact that Julian Felipe is 650 miles outside its own EEZ. China defies The Hague arbitral ruling of 2016 that outlaws its baseless “nine-dash line”. No international verdict upholds China’s expansionist claims.

Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez finds the timing of the reef invasion suspicious. It came only a week after Beijing’s vaccine gift. “Bahura para bakuna (Reef for vaccines)?” other congressmen wonder. Former foreign secretary Albert del Rosario suggests that Manila consult with allies America, Britain, European Union, Japan, and Australia.

Julian Felipe forms a triangle with McKennan (Hughes) and Mabini (Johnson South) Reefs in Pagkakaisa (Union) Bank. China had earlier landfilled the latter two reefs into garrisons. Control of Pagkakaisa will threaten Pagasa Island 68 miles away. Near Pagasa, part of Palawan’s Kalayaan town, are Zamora (Subi) and Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reefs, on which China has paved airstrips and naval ports in 2014. From there China harasses resupplies to civilians.

Mere entry of foreign fishing vessels in Philippine jurisdiction is poaching under the Fisheries Code (RA 8550). A trespasser can be fined up to $300,000. China’s 220 trawlers must be penalized $66 million or P3.3 billion.

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