According to The New York Times, China has quietly mobilized thousands of fishing boats in recent weeks, creating huge floating barriers. Last week, approximately 1.4 thousand Chinese vessels stopped fishing or flowed from their home ports and gathered in the East China Sea to form a rectangle over 320 km long.
Chinese cutters have tried a similar maneuver before – last Christmas. Then over 2 thousand units formed two parallel lines in the East China Sea with a length of approximately 470 km (that's the same as from Gdańsk to Krakow in a straight line).
As the American newspaper notes, the cutters gathered near the main shipping lanes leaving Shanghai, one of the world's busiest ports.
“In my opinion, it was an attempt to see how civilians would cope with mass mobilization in a future crisis, perhaps in support of a quarantine, blockade or other forms of pressure on Taiwan,” said Gregory Poling, an Asia expert, for The New York Times.
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China has the only such formation in the world
Experts said these maneuvers suggest China is strengthening its maritime militia. As noted by China expert prof. Andrew Erickson, the formation constitutes China's third naval force after its navy and coast guard. The militia carries out operations in the so-called gray zone. These are actions below the threshold of war, but they increase China's control over the disputed waters. Her tasks include, among others: patrolling disputed waters, supporting blockades and pushing other countries out of areas to which China claims rights.
