“Fierce” force in the East Sea | World

Mobilizing huge resources

The country’s 1997 Defense Law allowed militias, including the militia, to help “maintain public order.” Therefore, the maritime militia is empowered by China to carry out its own functions, along with the maritime and naval landscape, in the areas it claims.

According to the China Defense White Paper year 2019Since 2012, the country has deployed 950,000 military soldiers and armed police, along with more than 1.4 million militias to participate in operations. In addition, the Chinese military is also trained to be prepared to fight under the leadership of the government.

According to the US Department of Defense, within the general militia, China’s marine militia is also armed. In the South China Sea, the Chinese maritime militia plays an important role in achieving the objectives set by Beijing. Through this force, China wants to avoid the sound of using “military force” and not go to war, but it still carries out harassment activities against some parties.

Rent a fishing boat to operate

Currently, a large number of Chinese marine militia vessels are participating in joint training and support for the country’s maritime and naval vessels to cause instability in the South China Sea. These activities often follow civilian missions such as defending China’s sovereignty claims, surveillance, reconnaissance, and protection of Chinese fishing vessels. The central government of China provides a budget for the marine militias through commercial and civil society organizations in each locality.

According to a report from the US Department of Defense, Chinese marine militias often hire private boats. In addition, China has built a fleet of “state-owned” fishing vessels to serve the activities of the marine militias. The government of Hainan province, which borders the South China Sea, once ordered the construction of 84 large fishing boats to serve as a marine militia. Not only oversized, these ships also reinforced the hull and added ammo storage. The 84 ships were delivered by Beijing to the Hainan province maritime militia, along with budgets to organize operations in the South China Sea, especially in the area around the Spratly Islands. Vietnamese rights.

The Chinese civilian fishing boat (left) swooped aggressively into the middle of the Vietnamese fishing fleet for wooden shells that was fishing, asserting sovereignty over the waters of Tri Ton (Hoang Sa), June 2014

The game imposes the gray zone

In an incoming article Youth, Dr. James R. Helmes (US Naval War College maritime strategist) once noted that to achieve its goal of illegal sovereignty in the South China Sea, Beijing, despite using many measures, as through commercial commerce, or force they call law enforcement at sea, military force …

“Beijing plays under the guise of forming a” marine militia “that seeks to operate to disrupt the regular military and naval forces of other countries. At the same time, the PLAN will react to other countries. If such deterrence is successful, Beijing will not dispatch the military directly to directly facing “hot spots”, said Dr. Holmes.

Reply Youth On the challenges for the South China Sea, Mr. Gregory B. Poling, Program Director of the Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS, USA), once raised the issue of On artificial islands that the country illegally built in the Spratlys to support an unprecedented-scale deployment of marine militias to pressure the parties in the South China Sea, especially the South China Sea. Areas around the Spratly Islands.

“This is also a disruptive force for Vietnamese civilian ships,” Poling emphasized.