Lurking

And it's becoming a global threat

Welcome to China Uncensored, I'm Chris Chappell.

Behold, the greatest threat to  world peace—Chinese fishermen.

That may sound like a joke, but the Chinese  Communist Party is using the country's fishermen  

for some truly sinister purposes. And the US is  now sending its Coast Guard to deal with it. 

But first, did you know YouTube has been  secretly unsubscribing people from the show?  

Make sure you're still subscribed. Hit  that like button because it's a big help  

with YouTube's algorithm. And help us  fight censorship with as little as a  

dollar an episode, over on the  crowd funding website patreon.

So you might be wondering, how are Chinese  fishermen such a global threat? Well,  

the Chinese Communist Party is great at  weaponizing any part of Chinese society.

One Chinese fisherman doesn't seem like  much of a threat. But when you have a  

fleet of thousands invading disputed waters,  then you're talking about something different.

In just the first 6 months of 2020, more than 2500  

Chinese fishing boats were expelled  from Japanese territorial waters.

And it's not just Japan. 

It's happened in the Philippines.

And with Pacific Island nations  like Fiji, Kiribati, and Palau. 

In fact, according to this report by the  British Overseas Development Institute,

China's deep-water fishing fleet is “5–8  times larger than previous estimates”.

It's made up of about 12,000 ships  

that fish in other countries' waters. And  according to this Foreign Policy article...

China's fishing fleet is only one in the world  that “has a geopolitical mission, taking over  

weaker countries' waters and expanding  Beijing's maritime territorial ambitions.”

It's not just about asserting China's rather broad  territorial claims of the entire South China Sea. 

These Chinese fishing fleets plunder the  waters to feed China's massive population,  

while leaving very little for anyone else.

And this has a huge environmental impact as well.  

That's one of the reasons countries  around the world were so concerned  

when these Chinese fishing fleets spent a  month surrounding the Galapagos Islands. 

In fact, China's fishing fleet “is  regularly implicated in overfishing,  

targeting of endangered shark species,  illegal intrusion of jurisdiction,  

false licensing and catch  documentation, and forced labour.”

Why aren't other countries doing something  about it? Well, because they risk the wrath of  

the Chinese military. These fishing fleets are  actually part of the Chinese Communist Party's  

military force at sea. It's what's called  the People's Armed Forces Maritime Militia.

These maritime militia ships are typically  civilian ships, often with crews of fishermen.

But like any civilian-owned company in China,  

these fishing crews have to answer to the  Chinese Communist Party when called upon.

I did a full episode about these guys called  China's Hidden Navy: The Maritime Militia. 


When called upon, the maritime  militia can make aggressive moves,  

like surrounding disputed waters,  or bumping or ramming other ships. 

And sometimes, these fishing vessels are  also shadowed by China's coast guard. So  

when hundreds of “civilian” fishing boats  enter your country's territorial waters,  

are you going to risk a confrontation  with the Chinese military?

Recently, China passed the Coast Guard Law.

According to the Lawfare blog, the law allows  the Chinese Coast Guard to “'use all necessary  

measures including weapons' when China's  'national sovereignty, sovereign rights,  

and jurisdiction are being illegally infringed by  foreign organizations and individuals at sea.'”

The US State Department criticized  it, saying “Language in the law,  

including text allowing the Coast Guard  to destroy other countries' economic  

structures and to use force in defending  China's maritime claims in disputed areas,  

strongly implies this law could be used to  intimidate the PRC's maritime neighbors.”

And so the US is doing something about it.  

And that means the US Coast Guard is being  deployed very far from home. More after the break.

Welcome back. Unless you didn't see  an ad because YouTube demonetized us.  

That's why we need your support on Patreon.

In early December, a US coast guard vessel  

was sailing in the waters of Palau. That's  about 6,600 miles from the US coast.

Ok, that's really stretching  the definition of *Coast* Guard.  

But the US sent its Coast Guard there for a  reason: to bust Chinese ships for illegal fishing.

It's part of a coordinated US effort  to counter China's fishing fleets. 

In 2019,  

a US Coast Guard ship even conducted a Freedom  of Navigation operation in the Taiwan Strait.

This began with the 2018 Trump  Administration's National Defense Strategy.  

According to a Senior Policy Analyst at the Rand  Corporation, “The biggest transition has been  

the Coast Guard's more overt signaling about its  role in the great power competition with China.”

The US Coast Guard is technically under  the Department of Homeland Security.  

But it's been working with  the Pentagon more and more. 

“U.S. government data show Coast Guard vessels  spent 326 days in support of the Department of  

Defense in 2019, compared with an average of just  50 to 100 days over the previous five years.”

“All of the 2019 deployments  were in the Indo-Pacific.”

Part of the Coast Guard's work in the Indo-Pacific  is fairly mundane. Working with other countries,  

repairing ships, training crews,  and replacing navigational buoys. 

But it's clear the ultimate  aim is to counter China. 

“The Coast Guard is investing more  than $19 billion in at least eight  

national-security cutters, 25 offshore-patrol  cutters, and 58 fast-response cutters.”

“[These ships] are able to travel farther and  faster in worse conditions. They are armed  

with a naval gun system and heavy machine guns,  and have decks on which helicopters can land.”

That sounds like they might be used for  a little more than search and rescue. 

And now it's time to answer a question  from a fan who supports China Uncensored  

on the crowd funding website Patreon.

Jacob Anthony asks, “Hey Chris can you do a  segment over the current state of Falun Gong?  

I haven't heard anything about it in a while.”

Good question. In general, they are still  persecuted, still having their organs harvested.  

Although if you saw our recent podcast with  David Matas, who helped expose forced organ  

harvesting in China, that might be changing.  Not because the Chinese regime is slowing down,  

but because they might have just killed all  the eligible Falun Gong organ “donors.” That's  

a big reason why Uyghurs are the new Falun  Gong—at least in terms of organ harvesting.

But here's an interesting update. This is Peng  Bo. He was the deputy director of the 610 Office.  

That's the Gestapo-like secret police that's  spearheaded the persecution of Falun Gong. 

Well, he's the latest target of Xi  Jinping's anti-corruption campaign.

For those of you who don't know, Xi  Jinping's anti corruption campaign  

is really targeted at his political rivals,  mostly tied to former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin.  

Jiang was the one who launched  the genocide of Falun Gong. 

And Xi Jinping really seems to have it in for the  610 office. Six former directors have been sacked.  

Zhou Yongkang, the highest ranking of  them, was sentenced to life in prison.

Does that make up for the fact the  Falun Gong organ bank has been depleted?  

Not really. In fact, this isn't exactly  justice. Peng Bo should be arrested for  

crimes against humanity. But the CCP won't  ever admit to any of their crimes. So it's  

always some charge of corruption or something  unrelated to the actual crimes committed.

But there's your update Jacob.

And thank you for watching. Once again  I'm Chris Chappell. See you next time.