1 hour ago
Thousands of Chinese fishing vessels held coordinated manoeuvres off the coast of Taiwan and Japanese islands on at least two occasions in the last four months. Experts say fishing vessels are often employed by China's maritime militia and form a vital component in Chinese planning for an invasion of Taiwan.
Civilian vessels form an important part of China's maritime militia. Pictured here a Chinese trawler of the militia attempting to snag the towed acoustic array of the US surveillance vessel, USNS Impeccable, while in international waters (Image: US Navy)
New Delhi,UPDATED: Mar 13, 2026 17:16 IST
Thousands of Chinese fishing boats have been gathering in geometric formations in the East China Sea in coordinated actions that experts believe are part of Beijing's preparations for a potential regional crisis or a potential conflict centred around Taiwan, according to reports.
According to the AFP report, ship tracking data analysed by researchers show between 1,300 to 2,000 vessels formed long parallel lines roughly 300 kilometres north-east of Taiwan on at least two occasions. The first was on December 25, 2025, and the second was on January 11, 2026.
The boats, which were detected using their Automatic Identity System (AIS) signals, held their position for about 30 hours, in near gale-force winds. The Chinese vessels had forced South Korean vessels to return to port in December, before they dispersed.
The formations were much larger than a previous incident in 2016, which involved around 200 to 300 Chinese boats gathering near the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands, which China claims as the Diaoyu, reported the Japanese news outlet, Nikkei.
"I've never heard of such a huge mobilisation before," Kyushu University's Relations professor and an expert on Chinese maritime policy, Chisako Masuo, told Nikkei. "It could be seen as putting pressure on Japan and Taiwan," Masuo added.
Jason Wang, chief operating officer of the satellite analytics firm, ingeniSPACE, said the formation immediately stood out.
Speaking to AFP, he stated, "Something didn't look right to me because in nature very rarely do you see straight lines," adding that "We've seen like two, 300, up to a thousand Chinese fishing boats congregate, but anything exceeding a thousand I thought was unusual."
Maritime experts say the manoeuvres by the Chinese fishing vessels were unlikely to be related to fishing.
Gregory Poling of the Asian Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Centre for Strategic and Studies told AFP that he had "never seen a massing of Chinese fishing boats in these numbers anywhere outside of port."
Jennifer Parker, a former Australian naval warfare officer, described the event as "a demonstration with a military lens", and that she had never seen fishermen operate "in that proximity to each other, in that degree of concentration." Whatever they were doing, "they are definitely not fishing," she told AFP.
Experts believe that the fishing vessels that took part in the exercise could be a part of China's maritime militia, which uses civilian boats, including fishing boats, ferries and cargo ships, as part of its preparations for a regional crisis or conflict, including over Taiwan.
China has previously held multiple large-scale exercises around Taiwan that are often described as rehearsals for a blockade and seizure of the territory, according to former US Navy officer Thomas Shugart. Speaking to AFP, he stated that civilian vessels like fishing boats are "absolutely central" to Chinese military planning for any operation against Taiwan, due to the lack of dedicated amphibious landing craft within the Chinese Armed Forces.
- Ends
Published By:
Shounak Sanyal
Published On:
Mar 13, 2026 17:16 IST
Tune In
