China Lacks Control Over Provinces Expanding Distant-Water Fishing

2025-01-27 08:18:08

(MENAFN- Asia Times) Since the late 2010s, China has shown increasing sensitivity to the environmental and socio-economic impacts of its distant-water fishing (DWF) growth, as well as the reputational harm partly inflicted by international environmental advocacy .

DWF describes countries that fish outside their own territories and extend their range of activity to the other countries' economic exclusive zones or the high seas.

Was China's exponential DWF growth necessarily a direct result of Beijing's grand strategy to develop what's known as a“blue economy” and become a maritime power ? And what are the main challenges China faces if it's going to rein in this growth?

In an article published in Marine Policy , I seek to shift the state-centric perspective on the rapid development of China's DWF and explore the crucial role of Chinese provinces in driving this growth.

Provincial variations

Not all of China's coastal provinces are equally interested in expanding their DWF industry. Between 2010 and 2020, Liaoning, Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian and the China National Agricultural Development Group Co. Ltd. played a disproportionate role in boosting China's DWF activities, as measured by the number of vessels, horsepower and fish catch.

As of 2020, these entities collectively owned 84 per cent of China's DWF vessels, and their combined horsepower accounted for 86.6 per cent of the total horsepower across all Chinese DWF vessels. Their catch also constituted 87 per cent of the total weight and 86.8 per cent of the total value of China's DWF catch.

Fujian excelled as the province where fleet capacity growth yielded the highest returns in capture fisheries. It didn't have the largest DWF fleet (Zhejiang did) or the most powerful (Shandong did). But it led in both total DWF catch volume and average catch per vessel, and was second only to Shandong in catch value per vessel.

Proactive Fujian

Although Fujian was not initially chosen as a pilot province for marine economy development in 2010, it soon formed what's known as a leading small group, headed by the provincial governor, to reapply .

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