The number of violations by China’s distant water fleet is growing and is damaging the country’s reputation – that’s the view of a senior official who nonetheless wants to see the country get more value from its fleet by modernizing vessels and expanding its footprint in the Arctic as well as in West Africa.
Chang Wang Bo, secretary of the Communist Party in Shandong province, one of China’s key fisheries regions, told a meeting of the provincial Communist Party committee (the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) recently that he wants the regions distant water sector to “speed up development” by modernizing vessels and building “bases” abroad.
Yet, while calling on the province’s fisheries companies to behave themselves in international waters, Chang also sees an increase in the international catch as the best way to “resolve the contradiction” between “rising domestic demand” for seafood and “diminished supplies” in China’s domestic waters brought about by overfishing.
Global warming will make the Arctic waters a new fishing zone, said Chang, pointing to krill as a “huge opportunity” that China needs to exploit because “Norway is already well ahead” [in krill catches and processing]. His office would back two local fishery firms, state-owned Zhonglu Fishing Co. and Qingdao Jurong Fishing Co., to expand their krill operations, said Chang.
The building of “fishery bases” in West Africa and Indian Ocean bases, meanwhile, is another priority for the Shandong provincial Communist Party boss. Such bases, he suggested, would incorporate fishery landing, processing, and local trading facilities. Sales locally – prices for fish are typically higher in Africa compared to China – will lead to higher profits, added Chang.
Intended for a domestic audience, the strategy proposed by Chang Wang Bo on the face of it suggests some dissonance with views exchanged by his colleagues with international audiences. A climate change roundtable last year brought together Chinese, Japanese, and U.S. experts to discuss the impact of climate change on fisheries. Experts included John Mimikakis from the Environment Defence Fund, and Cui Li Feng from the Academy of Sciences.
Image of Qingdao, the largest city of Shandong Province, courtesy of Miyawaki kyoto via the Creative Commons
