China's Advance Into the Sea and the Maritime Militia Masaaki Yatsuzuka
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NIDS Commentary No. 53 China’s Advance into the Sea and the Maritime Militia Masaaki Yatsuzuka, Regional Studies Department No. 53 July 15, 2016 China’s Aggressive Advance into the Sea armed organization that is not divorced from production under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, an integral part of the armed China is currently proceeding with active forces of the People's Republic of China, and an maritime expansion backed by its economic and assistant and reserve force of the Chinese People's military power. The Chinese government is Liberation Army.” (Article 2).In addition, Article 5 attempting to strengthen effective control while states “Under the leadership of the State Council repeating low intensity threats that do not lead to and the Central Military Commission, militia work military escalation. These Chinese actions are is supervised by the General Staff Department of called "the salami-slicing strategy" and "creeping the Chinese People's Liberation Army (Note: the expansion", etc., causing friction with neighboring Defense Mobilization Department since military countries. reform)”, “the Provincial military district, the In this China maritime policy, what is military district, and the provincial people's armed heightening its presence is the Chinese maritime department (A government agency in charge of the militia. Xi Jinping in April 2013, immediately after mobilization of militias placed at the sub-provincial assuming the highest position in the party, state and base-level of government) are military command military, visited the maritime militia in Tanmen, institutions in each area and are responsible for Hainan province. Three months later, in July, a new militia operations in that area. "Militia" reminds us maritime militia organization was formed in Sansha of a wide range of armed groups such as guerrillas, City, which has jurisdiction over the South China partisans, volunteers, private soldiers, and military Sea, and in recent years many conflicts have cliques, but as seen in the above provisions, the occurred in the disputed waters of the South China Chinese militia is an official armed organization Sea in which maritime militia organizations were that receives command orders from both the allegedly involved. While the presence of maritime government and the military as a subsidiary agency militia is increasing, the structure and operation of of the People's Liberation Army. the organization still remains enigmatic. In addition, a party organization has been In this paper, I will try to examine what roles established inside the maritime militia, to relay the maritime militia organizations play in China's wishes of the Chinese Communist Party. For maritime policy, what problems might arise, and example, in Wenzhou Yueqing City, a senior what political measure is required through an official of the city's health department, who is a analysis of the relationship between maritime member of the Chinese Communist Party, is also militia organizational structure, law enforcement concurrently serving as a leader of a small group in agencies and military institutions. the maritime militia emergency relief division of the area, and four CCP members belong to the party A Complexly Structured Maritime Militia small group. This is probably because the Communist Party and government officials, by What kind of organization is the marine militia? taking the leadership of the maritime militia, are The first thing which should be confirmed is a chain tasked with the transfer of the orders from the party, of command system. To the extent that it is an military, coast guard and other law enforcement organization, not merely a fishermen's get-together, agencies to the rank and file of the fishermen there should be a chain of command system. through the party organization. That is to say, the According to China’s “Regulations on Militia maritime militia is institution with party Work”, it is stipulated that “The militia is a mass organization which not only receives commands NIDS Commentary N0. 53 and orders from both the military and the and information gathering on foreign science government but also communicate them internally. research ships, reconnaissance ships and fishing Furthermore, in order to systematically provide boats of other countries guidance to each fishing boat, there are multiple (3) Own maritime interest protection activities: command systems by function. The maritime (g) Daily fishing activities, surveillance activities militia has function-specific divisions such as a and information gathering on suspicious ships in reconnaissance division, an emergency relief disputed waters, (h) Maritime interest protection division, a maritime support division, etc., and duty in wartime respective roles are allocated to them. Also, some military officials propose to establish multi-layered As a feature of the above, what we can point out units in each organization such as Division (营) → first is that diversified cooperative duties with both Company (连) → Platoon (排) → Squad (班) (An the government and the military can be assumed. upper echelon unit consists of 3 to 5 lower echelon However, in actual operations, the chain of units. A squad is one ship). command and cooperation become much more In addition, many Chinese fishermen who complex because varied agencies join the activities. participate in the maritime militia are employed by For example, another military official proposes fishery related corporations (including fishing, food how the maritime militia should cooperate with the processing, ship building and port construction). other agencies in respective activities as follows. Therefore, it is likely that these corporations manage fishermen by recruiting, mobilizing and When the maritime militia: providing fishing boat equipment and compensation. Because of this kind of complex (1) independently carries out maritime organizational structure, the maritime militia information investigation and reconnaissance organization is not just a gathering of fishermen, but alerts, a provincial military district is in charge. is made up of human resources of various (2) joins emergency relief efforts, a maritime backgrounds including fishery food processers, search organization (this seems to be the China shipbuilders, port construction workers, and even Coast Guard) or a local government leads and a more medical personnel, local government and the provincial military district system also takes part. CCP officials. (3) carries out maritime interest protection Given this situation, it can be said that the activities, a provincial military district system maritime militia usually engages in fishery related systematically is in charge in cooperation with industries, but also, as needed, is a paramilitary local relevant departments under the guidance of a organization involved in various activities local party committee and government. safeguarding Chinese maritime interests while (4) cooperates with maritime law enforcement, systematically receiving orders from the military the Coast Guard department is in charge and the and the government. provincial military district cooperates under the unified guidance of a local party committee and Maritime Militia Tasked with Various Roles government, (5) assists naval activities, it is under the unified Then, what roles is the maritime militia tasked command of the navy with the cooperation of the with? In recent years, People’s Liberation Army provincial military district system. officials have made various proposals concerning the organization of the maritime militia. It is hard Of course, maritime militia is still in the process to believe that the maritime militia is operated just of institutionalization. Therefore, the as they proposed, but at least we can infer roles that organizational structures and cooperation systems the organization may play. are likely to have various forms by each region, Certain military officials propose the following and we should not expect that they will assume three major roles regarding the activities of the roles exactly as expected. On the other hand, it is maritime militia necessary to remark on the fact that local government and military agencies actively carry (1) Support for the People’s Liberation Army: out various capability assistance in order for (a) Participation in intelligence operations maritime militia to take responsibility for such including diversionary operation, (b) duties and its ability is steadily increasing. The Transportation of military supplies, (c) Medical Chinese Government has already provided more and equipment support for the military, (d) than 40,000 Chinese fishing vessels with Beidou Cooperation with defense operations Satellite Positioning System and also Hainan (2) Cooperation with law enforcement agencies: province and Sansha city have set up maritime (e) Maritime interest protection activities through militia military outposts on the islands in South fishing operation in disputed waters, (f) Sabotage China Sea, which are examples of enhancing NIDS Commentary No. 53 information sharing system between the maritime On the other hand, we have to point out the issue militia, law enhancement agencies such as the of the systematization of the maritime militia. Coast Guard and the Navy. According to the investigation publicized in 2015, Furthermore, local governments attempt to 46% of the maritime militia members were only expand their presence in the open sea by after a political position that come with