While military deployments to the tense seas around Southern China often make headlines, China has been quietly building paramilitary forces out of their coast guard and fishing fleets.

China operates the biggest fishing fleet in the world, and in the South China Sea, where its sweeping territorial claims conflict with its neighbors, Beijing uses these fishing ships as a kind of militia to harass and block other nation’s vessels from accessing the vital trade routes and fishing grounds.

In an interview with DefenseNews, Andrew Erickson, a professor of strategy with the US Naval War College and a founding member of the China Maritime Studies Institute, suggested that it’s time to start exposing these fishing boats for the aggressive militias they are.

While the Center for Strategic and International Studies recently released an eye-opening report on China’s use of its coast guard as a sort of “second navy,” Beijing’s inclusion of fishing fleets in its maritime law enforcement push has gone on for years now as a kind of open secret.

http://businessinsider.com.pl/international/its-time-for-the-us-to-call-out-china-in-the-south-china-sea/h1mejc0