China Plans Maritime Militias To Counter Armed Vietnamese Fishing Boats

China is establishing a 'full dimensional model' of South China Sea maritime militias to counter armed Vietnamese fishing boats.

The maritime militia organizations of Vietnam and other countries that have claimed sovereignty over South China Sea have been active for many years in the region, Chinamil reported Thursday.

"We must focus on the building of maritime militias, border and coastal defense militias, emergency response militias and the new reserve forces in order to form a national defense mobilization system which can serve, respond to emergencies and fight during wartimes," Sheng Bin, chief of the National Defense Mobilization Department of China's Central Military Commission (CMC) said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency on March 9, 2016.

China's maritime security environment is getting more and more complex. This calls for an armed maritime force to safeguard maritime safety and the interests of the maritime development.

Liu Xin, political commissar of the PLA Hainan Provincial Military Command (PMC), once advocated the building of maritime militias. Liu was quoted as saying by the news daily that relevant regulations by the Hainan PMC and other civil departments on the participation of maritime militias in rights protection activities had been released.