Copyright scmp
A report by a Washington-based think tank has revealed a tense 15-hour stand-off last month between China’s coastguard and South Korean vessels in a contested area of the Yellow Sea. The confrontation took place in the disputed Provisional Measures Zone (PMZ) after a South Korean research vessel, the Onnuri, approached facilities that Beijing has claimed are used for aquaculture, according to a report posted on Monday to the website Beyond Parallel, operated under the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The PMZ is an interim area in the Yellow Sea where South Korea and China have overlapping claims relating to their exclusive economic zones (EEZs). Under a 2001 deal, the two sides agreed to allow their fishing vessels to operate in the area and jointly manage marine resources while banning any activities beyond navigation and fishing. The report came ahead of a trip by Chinese President Xi Jinping to South Korea this week to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Gyeongju – his first visit to the country in 11 years. A report published by Beyond Parallel in June also detailed an incident stemming from China and South Korea tensions in the PMZ. Citing Automatic Identification System data from Starboard Maritime Intelligence, a New Zealand-based AI-powered platform for global maritime intelligence, the report said that Chinese coastguard vessel 6307 and two other vessels followed the Onnuri for about six hours after it entered the PMZ. The report indicated that South Korean vessels were likely dispatched to observe the Shen Lan 1 and Shen Lan 2 situated in the PMZ. Seoul contends that the two Chinese aquaculture platforms completed by Beijing last year were built without prior consultation, as required under their mutual maritime zone management. As the Onnuri and a South Korean coastguard vessel approached the structures, two Chinese coastguard ships flanked and followed them closely for 15 hours until the South Korean ships withdrew from the area. “This latest incident highlights the ongoing pattern of deliberate presence and surveillance near China’s unilaterally deployed platforms in contested waters,” the Beyond Parallel report said. China began installing the structures in 2018, according to the reports. Beijing has dismissed suspicions that the installations could be used for oil exploration or territorial claims, insisting their only purpose is for fishing and aquaculture and that they comply with both its domestic law and international law. Construction of the facilities was consistent with a China-South Korea fisheries agreement and has not impacted maritime delimitation, according to Beijing. The overlapping areas of the EEZs between China and South Korea, as well as Japan, in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, are known to have natural resources such as oil, which has led to disputes over claims, including the construction of artificial structures. South Korean coastguard vessels have previously driven off Chinese fishing boats operating in the area and the PMZ disputes have added to tensions between Seoul and Beijing. According to South Korea’s coastguard, up to 35 Chinese fishing boats were seized between 2022 and 2024 for operating illegally in waters near Jeju Island. Socotra Rock, a submerged rock formation known as Ieodo in South Korea and Suyan Islet in China, lies near the Chinese aquaculture facilities and falls within the overlapping EEZ claims between the two countries. In 2003, South Korea set up the Ieodo Ocean Research Centre, which Beijing said engaged in “unilateral” and “illegal” activities in the region. In February this year, a similar confrontation unfolded in the PMZ when Seoul attempted to investigate another Chinese-built steel structure, which it claimed was an aquaculture platform. In January, citing intelligence sources, South Korean media reported that China was planning to install as many as 12 steel structures in the waters, with one report claiming one structure was about 50 metres (164 feet) high and wide. According to the South Korean National Assembly, China has interfered in 27 out of 135 South Korean maritime surveys since 2020 – nearly one in five. A report by the South Korean Navy also showed that at least 13 Chinese ocean observation buoys were installed across the Yellow Sea between 2018 and 2023. “While civilian in function as ocean observation buoys, their deployment in sensitive areas and near maritime boundaries also raises questions about long-term strategic utility,” the report said. China’s use of its coastguard to patrol the PMZ and shadow South Korean ships “resembles grey-zone tactics that Beijing has employed in the South and East China seas to use overwhelming and persistent coastguard presence to assert control over disputed areas”, it added. Grey-zone tactics are coercive actions that fall short of armed conflict, enabling states to pursue territorial goals without provoking military responses. Beijing has also deployed coastguards to assert its claims in contested waters, including in stand-offs with the Philippines in the South China Sea and with Japanese vessels near the Diaoyu Islands, known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, which Tokyo also claims.
