Chinese Peril

Ecuador jails Chinese fishermen found with 6,000 sharks
Reuters

Residents protest after Chinese crew members were detained along with others for illegally fishing off the Galapagos Islands, in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Ecuador August 25, 2017.

QUITO -- An Ecuadorean judge has jailed 20 Chinese fishermen for up to four years for illegally fishing off the Galapagos Islands, where they were caught with 6,600 sharks.
The Chinese-flagged ship Fu Yuan Yu Leng 999 was apprehended in mid-August with some 300 tonnes of near-extinct or endangered species, including hammerhead sharks.
The crew received jail time of between one and four years, the judge said late on Sunday.

They were also fined a total of $5.9 million.
Ecuador’s foreign ministry said it had sent a formal protest to China over the presence of ships near the Galapagos, which inspired British naturalist Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
It reported earlier this month that China’s ambassador in Quito, Wang Yulin, said his country wanted to take all measures necessary to “put an end to these illicit practices.”
The islands are about 1,000 km (620 miles) west of Ecuador’s Pacific coast.

A Chinese crew member steps off a bus after being detained along with others for illegally fishing off the Galapagos Islands, in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal, Ecuador August 25, 2017. 

The Environment Ministry said the Chinese vessel was fishing in the Galapagos’ marine reserve.
The boat will be taken over by Ecuador and the dead animals thrown out to sea, the government said on Monday.
Shark fin is a status symbol for many Chinese, prized as nourishment and consumed in a shredded jelly-like soup. 

Restaurants across China serve it at traditional banquets.
Centenarian tortoises and blue-footed boobies inhabit the Galapagos alongside some 18,000 islanders who earn a living from fishing and the tourism industry.

Rubio Calls for Sanctions on Beijing for South China Sea Antics

“China should not be allowed to continue to pursue illegitimate claims and to militarize an area that is essential to global security.”

BY EMILY TAMKIN

The Trump administration may get an assist in crafting a no–nonsense stance toward China — from Congress.
One-time presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R.-Fla.) introduced a bill Tuesday that would slap sanctions on China for its destabilizing actions in the East and South China Seas, where Beijing has built artificial islands and airfields and warned neighboring countries to stay out.
“The People’s Republic of China,” the bill reads, “should not be allowed to continue to pursue illegitimate claims and to militarize an area that is essential to global security.”
Rubio proposes sanctions — including asset freezes, travel bans, and visa restrictions — on “any Chinese person” who contributes to construction or development projects in any contested area of the South China Sea, or who is complicit in actions or policies that threaten stability of those areas. 

Interpreted broadly, that would target everybody from Chinese coast guard and naval personnel to construction firms to fleets of Chinese fishermen who informally patrol far-flung waters.
The bill also urges a more muscular U.S. response to China’s territorial ambitions. 

It calls for the United States to “continue and expand” freedom-of-navigation operations meant to challenge China’s claims, and calls for the United States to meet Chinese “provocations” with “commensurate actions that impose costs on any attempts to undermine security in the region.”
It isn’t clear yet how much support Rubio can count on; it was introduced in committee without a single co-sponsor. 

Neither Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R.-TN) nor Ranking Member Ben Cardin (D-MD)’s office has yet responded to request for comment.
In the House, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS) — Trump’s pick to head the CIA — introduced a bill in July calling on China to cease militarization and reclamation in the South China Sea and to end provocation in the East China Sea.
What is clear is that the hard-line legislation comes on the heels of a carefully arranged call between U.S. President Donald Trump and the president of Taiwan, an issue that the Chinese do not take lightly. 

Trump also, in a series of tweets, accused China of intentionally devaluing its own currency to make it more difficult for U.S. companies to compete — and of building a “massive military complex” in the South China Sea.
Some foreign-policy analysts welcomed the bill as a way to show China some teeth. 

It’s a “welcome reminder that the United States has many tools at its disposal to influence Chinese policy in the South China Sea and East China Sea,” Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Foreign Policy. 

Though the bill has warts — Glaser noted that it focuses exclusively on China’s behavior in the disputed waters, not other claimants’, and targets activities like lighthouses that aren’t necessarily nefarious — she welcomed the effort to push back in area crucial to global trade and to the stability of Asia.
Even if this bill fails, she said, it is a reminder to the incoming administration that a targeted approach to the individuals and companies involved in military activity, construction, and dredging in the South and East China Seas would be useful in taking the lead on this issue, restoring U.S. credibility in the process.

But China is not the only country in Congress’ crosshairs. 

On Dec. 1, the Senate voted unanimously to extend sanctions on Iran for 10 years. 

And the House passed a bill that would restrict travel by Russian diplomats based in the United States. 

The Senate has not yet approved the legislation. 

On Wednesday, Russia made quite clear that it would retaliate by restricting American diplomats’ movement if this bill were to become law.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that U.S. authorities would do well to remember that “diplomacy is based on the principle of reciprocity.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R.-Fla.) introduced a bill Tuesday that would slap sanctions on China for its destabilizing actions in the East and South China Seas.