Naypyidaw, Feb 3:
China’s expanding deployment of fishing fleets and maritime militia in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) reflects a deliberate strategy to normalise coercive presence and challenge established maritime norms, a report said on Tuesday. Experts warn that Beijing is weaponising civilian vessels to project power, export instability, and exert strategic pressure, making the issue a serious maritime security concern rather than a peripheral fisheries matter.
According to Myanmar media outlet Mizzima News, China is extending its maritime footprint under the guise of civilian economic activity. Heavily subsidised distant-water fishing (DWF) fleets operate in close coordination with Chinese state and military institutions, blending economic exploitation, intelligence gathering, and coercive presence. The Indian Ocean is emerging as a new testing ground for this grey-zone strategy, which allows Beijing to reshape maritime realities without triggering open conflict.
The report highlights that China’s drive is partly motivated by domestic pressures to maintain food and economic security. Its DWF fleets, affiliated to varying degrees with government agencies, are militarily trained and often operate in ways that challenge international rules.
China’s fleets have come under increasing scrutiny for environmental damage, including overfishing, ecosystem harm, and shark finning, alongside human rights abuses such as forced labour and debt bondage. Despite claims of responsible conduct, documented patterns reveal deception, coercion, and evasion of international norms.
The report warns that China’s actions threaten global maritime governance. While Beijing promotes a South China Sea code of conduct, its maritime militia undermines the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), establishing a precedent that favours coercion over compliance.
“What China is exporting to the Indian Ocean is not fishing capacity, but a tested model of maritime coercion, refined in the South China Sea and now adapted for a new theatre,” the report concluded, underscoring the strategic implications of Beijing’s maritime expansion.
