{"id":61532,"date":"2020-12-22T15:15:16","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T04:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=61532"},"modified":"2020-12-22T14:04:16","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T03:04:16","slug":"chinas-fishery-deal-with-png-wolf-warrior-diplomacy-or-just-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/chinas-fishery-deal-with-png-wolf-warrior-diplomacy-or-just-business\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s fishery deal with PNG: wolf-warrior diplomacy or just business?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The signing of a $204\u00a0million memorandum of understanding between a Chinese government-backed fishery company and the Papua New Guinea government to build a \u2018comprehensive multi-functional fishery industrial park\u2019<\/a> on the Torres Strait island of Daru has triggered starkly different responses in PNG and in Australia.<\/p>\n

Daru is the administrative hub for PNG\u2019s impoverished and underdeveloped Western Province (also known unofficially as Fly River Province). It\u2019s one of the few islands in the Torres Strait that\u2019s not Australian territory, and it\u2019s only a short dinghy ride from the Australian border.<\/p>\n

Since I wrote about the MoU in the regional Far North Queensland newspaper Cape and Torres News<\/em> on 19<\/a> and 26 November<\/a>, and then in The Guardian<\/em><\/a> on 27 November, Jeffery Wall\u2019s 8 December follow-up story<\/a> in The Strategist<\/em> triggered multiple reports, all echoing concerns about regional security, depletion of the fishery and a worsening of trade relations with China.<\/p>\n

Canberra\u2019s subsequent chest-thumping about Beijing\u2019s \u2018big, bad wolf-warrior\u2019 diplomatic tack no doubt had Xi Jinping chuckling.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s ambassador to PNG, Xue Bing, said on 12 November that the Daru project \u2018will definitely\u00a0enhance PNG\u2019s ability\u00a0to comprehensively develop and utilise its own fishery resources\u2019. PNG Fisheries Minister Lino Tom said it was a \u2018priority project\u2019.<\/p>\n

While China\u2019s record of unsustainable fishing practices is worrying, it\u2019s important to note that this deal is with a PNG government in disarray. It\u2019s only an MoU, many of which fail to evolve into anything concrete, such as the 2016 $5\u00a0billion agreement<\/a> to construct two industrial parks in West Sepik Province.<\/p>\n

The Australian National University\u2019s Graeme Smith told the South China Morning Post<\/em><\/a>: \u2018An MoU signing ceremony in Papua New Guinea means almost nothing; they\u2019re a dime a dozen.\u2019<\/p>\n

I discussed the implications of this deal with traditional inhabitant members of the Torres Strait fishery on the Australian side of the border. They are already suffering from the live-seafood export ban imposed by their biggest customer, China, and are concerned about the proposed development\u2019s impact on their industry, but they are pragmatic about it.<\/p>\n

Torres Strait Islanders have long aspired for regional autonomy and more economic independence, and managing their fishery industry is seen as the best way to do that.<\/p>\n

Torres Strait community fisheries representative Kenny Bedford told me this week: \u2018News of this MoU was always going to ring alarm bells for us.\u2019<\/p>\n

But he said another perspective now emerging is the trade opportunity this sort of infrastructure development could represent for the region. It is timely given that a local company, Zenadth Kes Fisheries, has just been established.<\/p>\n

\u2018Finding ways to add value and better market our produce are key objectives of the new entity. This regional development could result in direct trade with China through a much closer port facility\u2019, Bedford said.<\/p>\n

Edmund Tamwoy, a Torres Strait fisher from the island of Badu agreed.<\/p>\n

\u2018With all the chaos that\u2019s going on, we might as well deal directly with Daru and I\u2019m open to discussion with the Chinese. If it\u2019s going forward then it\u2019s about us being smarter and seeing how we can tap into it.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Australian<\/em> quoted Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne as saying<\/a> that commercial-scale fisheries would not be considered a traditional activity under the Torres Strait Treaty and would not be permitted. \u2018Only residents of the protected zone are able to undertake such activities\u2019, she said.<\/p>\n

That is not correct.<\/p>\n

Australia and PNG are allowed to fish commercially in the shared area of the waters known as the\u00a0protected zone<\/a>, which straddles the fishing zones of the two countries.<\/p>\n

As the Australian Fisheries Management Authority website states<\/a>, inside Australia\u2019s zone,\u00a0PNG boats may take 25% of the permitted tropical lobster catch and 40% of Spanish mackerel.<\/p>\n

To date, PNG has not had the capacity to commercially fish its share of these quotas, but the deal could attract Chinese funding for PNG-flagged vessels that could fish within a couple of kilometres north of Thursday Island. That would be completely legitimate commercial activity that Australia would have no legal right to prevent.<\/p>\n

Sources in the Torres Strait tell me there has been no application, yet, for PNG to access its share of the fishery.<\/p>\n

When I questioned federal MP for Far North Queensland Warren Entsch, the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, the Australian Border Force, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about the MoU last month, I got the sense that they had either not been aware of it or not considered its implications.<\/p>\n

It took over a week for the government departments to provide me with their similar and carefully crafted responses that all echoed the DFAT line of, \u2018We expect all fishers in the Torres Strait region to follow respective Australian and Papua New Guinean laws and international obligations.\u2019<\/p>\n

However, a week after the MoU signing, the ABF announced that it had covertly deployed five\u00a0hydrophones<\/a> on the ocean floor, \u2018across the Torres Strait to combat illegal activity in the region, particularly illegal foreign fishing\u2019.<\/p>\n

These underwater microphones are new\u00a0technology developed with CSIRO that can in real time \u2018listen to vessel traffic and behaviour to assist in detecting activity such as illegal fishing and the movements of vessels involved in other illicit activities\u2019, the ABF statement said.<\/p>\n

However, all of the commentary to date has avoided the elephant in the room\u2014that there\u2019s been a presumption PNG will remain an underdeveloped backwater indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Anyone, including Australian commercial interests, could have cut the same deal with Daru, but in the last four decades of this fledging nation\u2019s history nobody has done that.\u00a0Now we want to cry wolf-warrior diplomacy at both our neighbour\u2019s aspirations of prosperity and our biggest trading partner\u2019s willingness to facilitate it?<\/p>\n

Might Australia have been asleep at the helm in the Torres Strait?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The signing of a $204\u00a0million memorandum of understanding between a Chinese government-backed fishery company and the Papua New Guinea government to build a \u2018comprehensive multi-functional fishery industrial park\u2019 on the Torres Strait island of Daru …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1292,"featured_media":61543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,52,651,357],"class_list":["post-61532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-fisheries","tag-papua-new-guinea"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChina\u2019s fishery deal with PNG: wolf-warrior diplomacy or just business? | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/chinas-fishery-deal-with-png-wolf-warrior-diplomacy-or-just-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China\u2019s fishery deal with PNG: wolf-warrior diplomacy or just business? 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