With fishery incidents emerging as a major threat to peace and stability in the South Sea, a better understanding of the underlying causes of these incidents becomes important. Mainstream media, and a substantial body of academic literature, attribute these fishing incidents, and the growing presence of Chinese fishermen in the South Sea, to China's strategic and political motives, claiming that these fishermen are actually fishing militia. Through revisiting the prevailing fishing militia narrative, this article argues that much wider economic and social factors are at work domestically in China, and that the international and regional scenes are more complex than the picture painted by purely viewing developments with China's fishing militia in isolation. This article also makes the case that fishing disputes in file South Sea have been heavily securitized with profound implications for the ongoing territorial and jurisdictional disputes in those waters. Keywords: South Sea, fishery disputes, fishing militia, securitization. In April 2016, Foreign Policy published a report entitled Fishing disputes could spark a South Sea crisis. This report pointed out that large and growing fishing fleets in almost all the countries ringing the South Sea are at the front lines over the fight to control tiny rocks with names like Mischief Reef, Fiery Cross, and Scarborough Shoal. (1) Indeed, amid rising tensions in the South Sea, there has been a growing number of maritime incidents involving regional fishermen, (2) and with Chinese fishermen in particular. Some of the maritime incidents have even triggered diplomatic and security tensions between and its neighbours in the South Sea. For instance, the Philippine Navy's apprehension of eight Chinese fishing vessels at the disputed Scarborough Shoal on 8 April 2012 resulted in a two month-long standoff between Philippine and Chinese vessels. (3) Moreover, a fishing incident off the Natuna Islands on 19 March 2016 led to a serious diplomatic spat between and Indonesia. (4) In the meantime, has also begun to take tougher action against fishermen from other countries. According to The Power project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C., of the forty-five major incidents identified in the South Sea between 2010 and 2016, at least one Coast Guard (CCG) (or other Chinese maritime law enforcement) vessel was involved in 71 per cent of incidents, mostly ones involving fishing vessels. (5) Mainstream media and a substantial body of academic literature attribute these fishing incidents, and the growing presence of Chinese fishermen in the South Sea, to China's strategic and political motives, arguing that these fishermen are actually fishing militia. (6) They argue that has been relying heavily on its fishing militia to exercise control over disputed waters. It is claimed that Chinese fishermen have become the main combatants in the country's undeclared and mostly bloodless pseudo-military campaign of expansion into the South Sea. (7) Not only academic scholars, but security analysts, political and military officials have also made similar arguments. For instance, a senior US State Department official claimed that China is using its fishing fleets with armed escorts to bolster maritime claims in disputed territory, and does point to an expanding presence of Chinese--sort of military and paramilitary forces--and used in a way that is provocative and potentially destabilising. (8) Against this backdrop, this article seeks to elaborate on previous studies on how best to explain the growing presence of Chinese fishermen in disputed waters, particularly in the South Sea. While the fishing militia narrative certainly enriches understanding of the fishing disputes in the South Sea, it suffers from a number of shortcomings. …
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Jul 3, 2018
Nehginpao Kipgen 
Open Access