This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Global trade could be at risk if tensions continue to escalate in one of the world's busiest shipping waters – the South China Sea.
China has been ramping up its aggression toward its neighbors in the South China Sea as it lays claim to almost the entire area. Cordial relations with the Philippines are rapidly deteriorating and recently Chinese Coast Guard ships violently attacked fishermen on a vessel from Vietnam.
According to a report from CNBC, some experts are claiming global markets should be on high alert after the recent clashes between China and its Southeast Asian neighbors, because of how important the shipping lanes are to global trade.
Marko Papic, chief global geo-macro strategist at BCA Research, said the risks to global shipping are obvious. as that industry is essential for Chinese commodities and input goods that travel through these South China Sea shipping lanes.
"The South China Sea is the most valuable shipping lane in the world in terms of the value of trade that transits through it," Papic told CNBC.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Thursday in response to the Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stating there needs to be a code of conduct for the South China Sea that China welcomes dialogue, but will not tolerate encroachment into its "territories."
"China firmly opposes any infringement activities and provocations, and firmly safeguards its own territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests," Mao said.
However, China breaches the economic exclusion zones of other nations repeatedly; using violence, intimidation, and underhanded tactics, while depleting fish stocks, and simultaneously gaslighting the world into believing it is somehow a victim, according to analysts.
The U.N. Trade and Development estimates at least a third of all global trade goes through these shipping lanes in the South China Sea, with 60% of all maritime trade, first passing through Asia.
While China has become the bully of the South China Sea, Chinese fishing vessels are illegally fishing in waters thousands of nautical miles away from mainland China in the East of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru – driving up squid prices for locals and costing the industry millions.
China has invested heavily in infrastructure in Peru over the past decade with a reported $24 billion already spent on developing Peruvian mines, its power grid, transportation, and hydroelectric power generation.
Peru has some of the world's largest copper deposits, and China is now South America's largest trade partner and consumer of copper, soy, and corn. According to Reuters, China has doubled its trade with Peru over the past ten years to $33 billion annually.
On Peru's coast, in the town of Chancay around 70 miles from the capital of Lima, China has invested billions of dollars into a deep sea mega-port as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative. This allows China better access to the Pacific Ocean, speeding up maritime trade by up to 12 days. Locals are voicing concerns about the social and environmental impact of the port, and are worried they will be cut off from accessing fishing grounds and beaches.
In May, the Chinese state-owned company Cosco, which is based in Hong Kong, muscled itself into a position of power by insisting the Peruvian government stick to agreed terms after Peru's National Port Authority granted the Chinese company exclusive rights to run Chancay Port and local officials pushed back.
According to Yale Environment 360, a 2020 study published by the Yale School of the Environment, China's habit of illegal fishing even extends to its purported ally, North Korea. The report notes China's fishing fleet, which is the largest in the world with over 500,000 fishing vessels, quickly is depleting the fish stocks of other nations, like North Korea and Peru.
North Korean stocks had become so dire, that Japan announced it was finding North Korean fishermen washed ashore after being forced to search further for their catch and not surviving.
"China is sending a previously invisible armada of industrial boats to illegally fish in North Korean waters, forcing out smaller North Korean boats and leading to a decline in once-abundant squid stocks of more than 70 percent. The North Korean fishermen washing up in Japan apparently ventured too far from shore in a vain search for squid and perished," the report states.
China has also been caught illegally fishing in the waters of Australia, and New Zealand, and off the coast of Africa in the waters belonging to Kenya and Tanzania.
