China Long Distance Association Secretary General Huang Bao Shan recently attended in “three days of intensive negotiations” with Kiribati over tuna licensing for the period up to May 31 2017.
Huang was negotiating on behalf of the the Chinese government, as the CLDA appears to be a unit of the Chinese Agriculture Ministry tasked with signing fishery access deals for Chinese fishing companies. The links between CLDA and the Agriculture Ministry are strong – the president of the CLDA is Niu Dun, who is also a senior official in the ministry.
During negotiations, the CLDA boss was in Brisbane, Australia and Tarawa, Kiribati, according to a Chinese government official website.
The deal with Kiribati will greatly benefit the giant seafood distributor/processor/trawler operator Zhejiang Ocean Family, which operates purse seine vessels in the waters of the Pacific island nation.
China has been keen to elbow out fishery companies from the United States in the quest for Kiribati tuna it. But it is forced to operate through long-arm mechanisms like the CLDA, given Kiribati keeps diplomatic relations with Taiwan and not Beijing.
