CHINA WATCHHow China’s Maritime Militia Takes Advantage of the Grey Zone

By Masaaki Yatsuzuka

Published 17 January 2023

In recent years, China has used paramilitary forces to put pressure on neighboring countries that have conflicting claims with Beijing. Japan has been one of the targets over which China seeks to gain dominance by deliberately creating grey-zone situations at sea.

At the end of last year, Japan’s National Institute for Defense Studies released the 2023 edition of its annual China security report, which focuses on China’s quest for control of the cognitive domain and grey-zone situations. I, as one of the report’s authors, analyze how China uses its maritime militia and coastguard and what it aims to achieve.

In recent years, China has used paramilitary forces to put pressure on neighboring countries that have conflicting claims with Beijing. Japan has been one of the targets over which China seeks to gain dominance by deliberately creating grey-zone situations at sea. For example, in 2016, shortly after China’s then defense minister, Chang Wanquan, visited the maritime militia of Zhejiang, hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels swarmed into the waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands, which Japan effectively controls, and made repeated incursions into Japan’s territorial waters. Australia, too, has been a target. During Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019, helicopters taking off from the Royal Australian Navy flagship HMAS Canberra were reportedly hit with lasers from Chinese fishing vessels.

There’s no conclusive evidence that China’s maritime militia were involved in these incidents. However, the Chinese government is clearly putting an emphasis on the militia to expand its maritime interests. Neighboring countries therefore need to accurately understand China’s intention in its use of maritime militias.

China’s maritime militia is under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party, the government and the military. The cadres of the local militia often hold positions in local governments and party organizations. For example, Wang Shumao, deputy commander of the maritime militia in Tanmen in Hainan province, who also serves as secretary of the CCP’s Tanmen branch, was elected as a delegate to the party’s 20th national congress. The maritime militia is not simply a group of fishermen; it is composed of personnel with various backgrounds, including fishery processors, shipbuilders, port builders, medical workers, veterans, local government officials and members of the CCP.

The Chinese maritime militia have a variety of missions, such as daily fishery production activities; maritime guerrilla operations; cooperation with and support for maritime operations forces; and engagement in grey-zone activities at sea.