The Chinese maritime militia is operating hundreds of civilian fishing vessels to conduct “gray zone” campaigns in the Taiwan Strait, a US-based think tank said in a report this month.
Beijing is deploying dual-use and unmarked fishing vessels to engage in surveillance and harassment operations with the aim of coercion and paving way for military actions without risking an open conflict, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) wrote on Oct 8.
The CSIS said its analysts tracked the GPS and automatic identification system (AIS) signals of 315 China-flagged fishing vessels to isolate watercraft operated by China’s maritime militia from other civilian boats.
Photo: Philippine Coast Guard via AP
The center’s research group mapped hot zones of genuine fishing activity in waters across the globe to identify Chinese military boats in disguise, it said.
The analysis is based on data gathered during the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Joint Sword-2024A and 2024B exercises, the CSIS said.
Researchers flagged 128 to 209 Chinese boats as suspicious, because they had spent more than 30 percent of sailing time in drill areas or less than 10 percent in waters used for fishing, it said.
They additionally found that 209 vessels displayed AIS anomalies — including “going dark, changing identifiers, or reducing or attempting to mask their AIS movements” — in or near military exercise zones, the CSIS said.
Some of the vessels changed their names in the international ship registry during periods of AIS blackout or weak signal, it said.
One vessel appeared to have used 11 distinct mobile maritime service identification serial numbers and changed them 1,300 times in a year, the CSIS said.
The intelligence agencies of the US and its allies should map the corporate ownership networks linked to suspicious vessels to identify the shell companies on which China relies to operate disguised military vessels, it said.
“Publishing and punishing a rolling blacklist of repeat offenders through sanctions on owners, insurers and operators would raise costs and shrink deniability,” the CSIS added.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of National Defense in a report to lawmakers last week said that the PLA from January to last month had launched 3,003 sorties over the Taiwan Strait median line and sailed 2,000 vessels into the nation’s exclusive economic zone.
China operates aircraft and vessels in the areas surrounding Taiwan proper three to four times a month on average, it said.
Taiwan is developing long-range uncrewed vehicles with high-resolution optical devices, infrared devices and radars to bolster the air force and navy’s reconnaissance capabilities, it added.
Such drones would be plugged into a common platform to enable real-time intelligence sharing between branches of the armed forces and foreign military partners, the ministry said.
The armed forces continue to use joint intelligence gathering systems to monitor Chinese activities and respond with appropriate force to potentially threatening movements to protect the nation’s sovereignty and security, it added.
Additional reporting by Chen Chih-chen
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