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Largest patrol ship sets sail for tough task

By Li Xiaokun and Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-12 08:06

China's biggest and fastest fishery patrol ship set off for an "arduous" mission in the country's exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea from Guangzhou on Tuesday.

Sailors of China's largest fishery patrol vessel, No 311 Fishing Administration Ship, prepare to set off for the South China Sea from Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Tuesday. Wang Xiaoming [China Daily]

"The patrol ship will safeguard China's sovereignty in the South China Sea and protect the nation's marine rights and interests," said Wu Zhuang, director-general of the Administration for Fishing Affairs and Fishing Ports on South China Sea. "We will expand the fishery patrol ship fleet in the next three to five years."

Converted from a retired Chinese Navy warship, No 311 Fishing Administration Ship, with a tonnage of 4,450 tons and maximum speed of 20 knots (37 km) per hour, will protect fishing vessels around Nansha, Xisha and Zhongsha Islands on China's southernmost maritime territory as well as demonstrate Beijing's sovereignty over its islands, Wu said.

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A new patrol ship with a tonnage of around 2,500 tons is being built, he said. When it is completed by 2010, the new ship will be China's first fishing administration ship in the South China Sea to carry helicopters.

Yang Jian, chief economist of the Ministry of Agriculture, described the mission to safeguard China's maritime interests as "arduous".

The United States' naval activities in the sensitive area of the South China Sea have escalated recently, a senior military official who declined to be named told China Daily yesterday. Disputes have also long existed with neighboring countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Last Thursday, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi landed on the Swallow Reef and Ardasier Reef of China's Nansha Islands, in the center of the South China Sea, to claim Malaysia's sovereignty there. China protested.

Last month, the Philippines congress passed a bill stating that China's Huangyan Island and some of the Nansha Islands are part of its territory, which the Chinese embassy in Manila protested against yesterday.