PUSHBACK IS NEEDED IN MANY AREAS: A PLAN TO PUSH BACK AGAINST CHINA’S FISHING PRACTICES.

The Soviet fishing fleet was once a near-permanent fixture on America’s Pacific coast, hauling in an estimated 1.2 million tons of fish until the two sides reached an agreement to limit the Soviet catch in exchange for a relaxation of rules on Soviet port visits. Moscow’s fishing fleet dwindled in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, only to be replaced by China’s large fleet — and maritime militia — that Beijing now uses to encroach on the sovereignty of its neighbors. The environmental and economic challenges of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing are clearly a threat to the global fish supply, but also represent a more direct and significant threat to national security.

The vast expansion of China’s illegal fishing fleet has made large, capable vessels readily available to its maritime militia, which it uses for coercive influence in contested areas from the Spratly Islands to oil and gas standoffs with Malaysia and Vietnam. More importantly, it represents a clear example of how China refuses to accept the rights of coastal states and their claim on the resources of their economic exclusion zones.

The U.S. Coast Guard is well positioned to work with countries to push back against China’s fishing practices, and to take the lead on this issue.

Somebody should. I think China should have to give up fishing for a decade as partial reparations for Covid.