South China Sea: tensions over Beijing’s continued detention of Vietnam fishermen

China’s continued detention of Vietnamese fishermen serves as a warning to Hanoi against persisting with land reclamation activities in the South China Sea, analysts say, noting that while the arrest of fishermen is a common occurrence, Hanoi’s public appeals to Beijing for their release are a new development. On October 31, Vietnam protested China’s alleged detention of its fishermen and vessels in the disputed Paracel Islands, urging Beijing to “immediately release” them, claiming they were “illegally detained”. A foreign ministry spokesperson did not specify the number of fishermen or when the detentions occurred. However, a Chinese think tank, the Beijing-based South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI) said in a social media post on November 1 that Vietnamese fishermen have been detained by China in the Paracel archipelago for six months, having been apprehended in April and May for illegal fishing. In Beijing, a foreign ministry spokesperson urged Vietnam on Friday to improve its fishermen’s “education and management” to prevent them from entering China’s claimed waters. Vietnamese authorities, however, insist the fishermen have the right to operate in the waters, as the Paracel Islands belong to Vietnam. Known as Hoang Sa in Vietnamese, the Paracels have been under Chinese control since a 1974 conflict with Vietnam. Isaac Kardon, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Asia Program, said China is increasingly engaging in aggressive law enforcement and harassment in disputed waters, particularly targeting Vietnamese fishermen. “[This is] to discourage further Vietnamese land reclamation and to further normalise [Beijing’s] control over Paracel fisheries employing their increasingly capable and competent coastguard forces,” Kardon said. In May, a Chinese think tank claimed that Vietnam had reclaimed more land in the South China Sea in the past three years than in the previous four decades, warning the activity could “complicate and expand” disputes in the waters. The Beijing-based Grandview Institution said Hanoi’s expansion had added 3 sq km (741 acres) of new land to the original 0.7 sq km on the features. Kardon added that Vietnam may be hesitant to disclose the number of fishermen and the duration of their detention, to protect its bilateral relationship, “which is increasingly intimate on internal security matters, from frictions in the South China Sea”. During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Vietnam last December, Beijing and Hanoi pledged to step up security cooperation, especially on “regime security”, the first time the two had referred to such a form of security in a joint statement. They also pledged to strengthen defence cooperation and maintain high-level strategic communication between the two communist parties during Vietnamese President To Lam’s visit to China in August. Benjamin Blandin, a maritime security expert at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies, said while China frequently arrests Vietnamese and Filipino fishermen, it is notable that Hanoi has publicly requested their release. “China has been mistreating Filipino and Vietnamese fishermen for a long time already, ceasing their catch and boats”, detaining and sometimes beating fishermen and confiscating equipment like radios and fishing gear, Blandin added. Aside from the fishermen issue, Blandin said there are “under the radar” tensions between the countries due to Beijing’s attempt to “delay, slow down or impeach” Vietnam’s effort at reclaiming land on various islands and reefs in the South China Sea. Last month, Vietnam said Chinese law enforcement personnel boarded a fishing boat and beat the crew with iron bars, seriously injuring four of them, prompting Hanoi to launch a public protest. On the detention of the fishermen, Gilang Kembara, research fellow at the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies’ Maritime Security Programme said Vietnam sees China’s act as a violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos). He highlighted that Article 73(2) of Unclos requires the prompt release of arrested vessels and crews upon posting a reasonable bond, and Article 73(3) specifies that penalties for fisheries violations cannot include imprisonment. China’s action is not in line with Unclos or any other international maritime regime Gilang Kembara, maritime analyst Hanoi asserts that without a clear maritime boundary and the rejection of Beijing’s excessive claims in the area, “China’s action is not in line with Unclos or any other international maritime regime as their fishermen were seen to have fished in areas that do not belong to China”, Kembara stated. In March, Hanoi rejected Beijing’s proposal to redefine its coastal waters in the Gulf of Tonkin, referred to by China as the Beibu Gulf, a waterway at the northern end of the South China Sea between China’s Hainan Island and Vietnam. Adding that Beijing continues to claim most – if not all – of the South China Sea as its territory, Kembara said China sees itself as having full sovereignty and rights to enforce its laws there. “Therefore, it does not see itself being tied to Unclos on this particular incident, as they could claim that the Vietnamese fishermen were fishing within its territorial waters, which no one supports,” he added.

South China Sea: tensions over Beijing’s continued detention of Vietnam fishermen

While China claims the fishermen were illegally fishing in its waters, Vietnam insists they were operating within their rights