How Vietnam is using fishing trawlers to keep an eye on China’s military

Vietnamese boats frequently make forays into Chinese territorial waters near Hainan, home to a number of key armed forces bases, a think tank says

While many might come for the fish, some also stay to spy, analyst says

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Hainan is a base for the Chinese navy’s South China Sea fleet. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:00pm, 23 Feb 2020Updated: 11:14pm, 23 Feb 2020

Vietnamese trawlers – some with militia on board – are intruding repeatedly into Chinese waters near the southern island of Hainan as Hanoi steps up its presence in the South China Sea, according to Chinese diplomatic observers.

At least 34 Vietnamese boats sailed near Hainan between January 19 and January 31, with most of the vessels going within the 12 nautical mile territorial limit, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, a think tank at Peking University, said in a report released this month.

Thirty of the vessels gathered “peculiarly” on the southeast side of the island, particularly near the coast of Sanya and Lingshui, the think tank said, citing automatic identification system data used for maritime monitoring.

Sanya, a city on the island, is a major base for the Chinese navy’s South Sea Fleet and home port of the aircraft carrier Shandong, while the air force uses Lingshui as a base to project power over the South China Sea.

“As it is known to all, there are a number of Chinese naval and airbases,” the think tank said in the report. “It would make no economic sense for Vietnamese fishermen to go the extra distance to the east side of Hainan if simply to fish.”

China and Vietnam have large overlapping claims in the resource-rich South China Sea but China’s sovereignty over Hainan is not disputed, making the Vietnamese fishing activities in the area illegal, according to the think tank.