The Chinese side refutes! "Completely political manipulation"
Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mao Ning, presided over a regular press conference on September 4th.
A reporter asked: On August 31st, the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its 2023 International Fisheries Management Improvement Report to the US Congress, which identified China as engaging in or supporting illegal fishing. May I ask if the Chinese side has any comments on this?
Mao Ning: According to international law and practice, the main body engaged in illegal fishing activities is fishing vessels, and the illegal fishing behavior of individual fishing vessels should not be attributed to the state. The United States, based on the "illegal fishing" activities of individual fishing vessels, generally identifies and determines that a country is engaged in "illegal fishing" without any legal basis, seriously disrupting the order of international fisheries cooperation and completely engaging in political manipulation.
China is a responsible country that attaches great importance to the scientific conservation and sustainable utilization of fishery resources. In accordance with relevant international laws such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, China exercises the right to develop and utilize high seas fishery resources, actively fulfills international obligations, establishes a sound management system for deep-sea fisheries, implements the world's strictest monitoring and management measures for fishing vessel positions, takes the lead in implementing fishing bans in some high seas, and works with the international community to crack down on illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activities. China has successively joined 8 regional fisheries management organizations, including the International Committee for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna, and has consistently ranked high in compliance performance among these organizations.
On the other hand, the United States has not only long violated international laws by overfishing tuna in the central and western Pacific Ocean, but has also been found to have 13 suspected IUU fishing activities at the recent annual meeting of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Organization, involving indiscriminate fishing of whale sharks, sea turtles, shark injuries, and other aspects. The number of violations ranks first among all members. Before unreasonably asserting that other countries engage in so-called "illegal fishing," the US should first carefully examine itself and consider how to solve the problem of illegal fishing by its own fishing vessels.