China’s Distant-Water Fishing Fleet: A Weapon of the Chinese Communist Party

From Galápagos to Ghana to the West Philippine Sea, it is clear that China’s fishing fleet is being used as an instrument of power.

Some of the 220 Chinese vessels are seen moored at Whitsun Reef in the South China Sea on March 7, 2021. Philippine Coast Guard/National Task Force-West Philippine Sea via AP

Commentary

For a long time, episodes such as the Galápagos crisis were treated as conservation crises with geopolitical overtones. A new majority staff report for the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security takes the opposite view.