100 Chinese boats ‘in Malaysian waters’ of disputed South China Sea: Beijing says ‘it’s fishing season’, analysts say it’s a message
About 100 China-registered boats were detected encroaching into Malaysian waters near the Luconia Shoals in the South China Sea on Thursday.
Shahidan Kassim, a minister in charge of national security, said his government had dispatched the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and the navy to the area to monitor the situation, the country’s Bernama news agency reported.
Shahidan did not give further information on the nature of the Chinese vessels and their specific locations, but warned that legal enforcement action would be taken if the Chinese vessels were found to have entered Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular briefing that he did not “understand the details” of what the Malaysian government had said about the matter.
“What I want to point out is that now is the fishing season in the South China Sea ... At this time of year, every year, Chinese trawlers are in the relevant waters carrying out normal fishing activities,” Hong said.
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The incident comes just days after Indonesia detained eight Chinese fishermen it accused of operating illegally in its waters.
Unlike other Asean countries, such as Vietnam and the Philippines, who have been the most vocal in expressing their concerns and anger over China’s growing assertiveness, Malaysia and Indonesia have so far largely avoided being caught up in the tensions.
The confrontation comes as Beijing steps up territorial claims in the disputed waters. Luo Baoming, the party chief of
Hainan (海南) province, said at the recent annual National People’s Congress that China was encouraging its fishermen to venture into the South China Sea by offering subsidies and security training.
“For this to come so soon after the Indonesian incident, I think it’s beyond a stretch of the imagination to say this is a coincidence. I think this has to be something which has a higher level of authority behind it ,” said Euan Graham, director of the international security programme at the Lowy Institute in Australia.
“It’s a very staged message in that sense from China… these are waters where China will fish at will or else.”
He said that in addition to fishing vessels, the coastguard and probably the military were involved.
Li Mingjiang, from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said though disputes between fishermen and authorities in the countries involved were common in the South China Sea, China’s move would have a negative impact on Sino-Malaysian ties if the military were involved.
But Zhuang Guotu, director of Xiamen University’s Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, said the confrontation was unlikely to do much damage to ties between China and Malaysia, as China was Malaysia’s biggest trade partner.
