Fishing for a better deal

When opposition lawmakers meet with members of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS, 海協會) in Beijing this weekend, fishing industry officials from Taiwan hope that long-term political differences will be put aside and an agreement reached regarding the status of thousands of Chinese fishermen who, over the past decade have become the backbone of the local fishing industry.

Citing unfair treatment at the hands of Taiwanese skippers and unsanitary living conditions, Beijing officially banned its nationals from working on Taiwanese-owned fishing boats in February.

And while several thousand Chinese fishermen ignore their government's edict and continue to work on Taiwanese boats, the ban has resulted in upwards of 5,000 Taiwanese fishing boats without crews lying idle in their homeports.

"Chinese fishermen have become a very important factor in the future of our fishing industry," explained James Sha (沙志一), vice chairman of the Fisheries Administration of the Council of Agriculture (行政院農業委員會漁業署). "The sheer number now employed means that we have become dependent on them in order to keep our boats at sea."

According to Hsieh Fan-tung (謝藩東), general manager of the Keelung Fisherman's Association (基隆區漁會), there are at present 20,000 local fishermen and 30,000 Chinese fishermen plying their trade on Taiwan-registered fishing boats.

"Over the past decade, the number of Taiwanese fishermen has declined rapidly. Taiwan's young people don't want to live such a hard life and earn such low wages," Hsieh said. "On a boat with a crew of eight, say, at least six will now be Chinese. It's gotten to the stage now where [Chinese] are the crux of our fishing industry." Although Beijing's ban has led to demands for Taipei to call Beijing's bluff by employing more Vietnamese fishermen, industry officials remain insistent that the continuing use of Chinese fishermen is the industry's most efficient path.

"They speak the same language, eat the same food and are of the same race as us, which makes life easier for all concerned," said Wu Chun-an (吳俊岸), general manager Hsinchu Fisherman's Association (新竹區漁會). "And, of course, they are cheaper to hire." while fishing industry management argues that Chinese fishermen earn at least US$10 per day -- payable in US currency -- a group of Chinese fishermen interviewed by the Taipei Times recently denied receiving such lofty wages, saying instead that an average daily wage rarely exceeds NT$200 -- paid in Taiwan dollars.

"I guess compared to Taiwanese people we earn nothing. But we are here because there's little work opportunity in Fujian," said one Fujianese fisherman who is at present residing on the Jie-an No. 1 (捷安一號), a 10m fishing vessel which houses over 100 Chinese fishermen that is currently moored at Keelung's Badoutz fishing harbor (基隆八斗子漁港).

Employment of Chinese fishermen by local fishing companies is by no means a new phenomenon. Until the late 1980s, however, Vietnamese and Philippine nationals were the backbone of Taiwan's fishing fleets.

An increase in the illegal employment of Chinese fishermen towards the end of the 1980s saw the numbers of Chinese nationals working on Taiwanese boats reach such proportions that the government was forced to legitimize the use of the workforce in 1990.