The Epoch Times by Anders Corr
News Analysis
Beijing’s hoarding of ships’ geolocation data is another indicator of its future plans to use commercial shipping for military purposes. The United States and allies should demand more transparency.
China’s shipping fleet is going dark, potentially endangering maritime transport, and causing major problems for supply chain managers and shipping coordinators as they struggle to map shipping flows in Chinese ports with insufficient data. Beijing is supposedly imposing the blackout due to national security concerns, which indicate that it will continue to illegally use its commercial shipping fleet for military purposes. But the ship geolocation blackout could also help China’s huge illegal fishing fleets.
Beijing’s “gray zone” tactics—such as the surrounding of islands it plans to take by its maritime militia disguised as fishing boats—along with its coast guard and then further afield, its navy, is called its “cabbage” strategy. China’s fishing fleets—for example, its illegal night-time squid trawlers—often turn off their automatic identification system (AIS) when fishing in other countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs).
Even more shocking, Beijing’s strategy to launch missiles from containerized cargo is arguably a violation of the Law of Naval Warfare….
