South China Sea: sleepy port town is base for Beijing's 'little blue men'

• China has no 'historic title' over South China Sea waters: Hague tribunal
• Analysis: Beijing's response shows why we need the law
• Explainer: High stakes on the high seas - Philippines v China at The Hague

Tanmen, Hainan Province: They get lucrative subsidies, basic military training and ride a wave of nationalist sentiment - but officially they are just fishermen following their traditions.

The "little blue men" in this sleepy port town are the vanguard of China's push into the disputed waters of the South China Sea.

The reservist-style maritime militia in Tanmen operate under the guise of civilian fishing vessels and personnel, but are gaining a reputation for aggressive tactics, shepherding other Chinese fishing vessels and patrolling waters near disputed islets and reefs in the Spratly and Paracel chains.

"The government wants our fishermen to go out there and fish, to be active frequently over there," says one 47-year-old fisherman who, like most locals, comes from a family line who have fished in the disputed waters for generations. "If we go there often it shows this our country's islands and islets – if you don't go, then other governments will claim it as their own."

Fishermen in Tanmen, where some are trained to act as militia upholding Beijing's "sovereignty" in the South China Sea.Credit: Sanghee Liu

The Pentagon and other western military analysts have likened China's strategy to that of Russia in Ukraine, where "little green men" lacking clear identification but carrying weapons were ostensibly directed from Moscow.

Tanmen's "little blue men" help China avoid military-to-military conflict. "These activities are designed to stay below the threshold of conflict, but gradually demonstrate and assert claims that other countries dispute," says Abraham Denmark, deputy assistant US defence secretary for East Asia, in a recent Pentagon report.

Ordinary fishermen here have little grasp of the international scope of the disquiet over Beijing's program of island-building in the disputed seas, nor do they have a handle on the international arbitration at The Hague sought by the Philippines, a process which China has boycotted.

What fishermen do know is what has changed at sea; fishing near the Spratlys - known as Nansha in Chinese - has become far more dangerous.

A fisherman at work in Tanmen, in China's southern Hainan Province.Credit: Sanghee Liu

"We used to be able to go fishing there easily, if we run into Philippines patrol boats we'd just give them some food and drink. Now they just open fire," says Huang Dezhang, a 47-year-old itinerant deckhand. "They'll fire some warning shots first. And if you don't turn back quickly enough, they start shooting straight at you."

A fishing fleet with a difference

Huang, 47, lives with his family in their fishing boat, near where a new South China Sea museum is being built in Tanmen.Credit: Philip Wen

China's ruling Communist Party has long recognised the natural alignment of the fishermen's interests and the country's expansive sovereignty claims, which extend to the shores of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

It has invested in modernising Tanmen's maritime militia, which played a significant role in recent conflicts, including a 2012 standoff with the Philippines in the Scarborough Shoal, and in 2014, when Chinese and Vietnamese vessels rammed each other repeatedly as Hanoi protested the presence of a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters.

Fishing vessels moored at Tanmen wharf fly the flag of the People's Republic.Credit: Sanghee Liu

Maritime militia vessels look the same as any other Chinese fishing trawlers, except that they are typically much larger and newer, and manned with a crew with different objectives.

"They don't go there to trawl for fish, they're in the Spratlys to uphold Chinese sovereignty," says Yang Qingfu, an elderly former fishing captain feted in the mainland press for his encyclopaedic knowledge of the South China Sea.

Chinese President Xi Jinping meeting maritime militia in Tanmen in April 2013. Credit: Xinhua

Yang is a personal friend of Wang Shumao, deputy commander of Tanmen's maritime militia, who is also routinely praised in state media, particularly for an ultimately unsuccessful effort to block Philippines vessels from accessing Scarborough Shoal in 2012.

"Wang's fleet carry out their work even during the months when the commercial fishing season is suspended," Yang told Fairfax Media. "Their work goes through special approvals from above … they also help ferry construction materials and supplies to the islands."

A poster of Chinese President Xi Jinping with local fishermen at the entrance of the port of Tanmen.Credit: Sanghee Liu

Wang was not home when visited by Fairfax Media and declined to be interviewed when later reached by telephone.

All the president's fishermen

The office of Tanmen's maritime militia, which is in the same compound as the port's local government office.Credit: Philip Wen

Chinese President Xi Jinping made a high-profile visit to Tanmen in April 2013, in his first months in office.

The trip was timed for the first anniversary of the Scarborough Shoal confrontation, with Mr Xi inspecting Tanmen's militia headquarters and singling them out for special praise.

Su Chengfen, 81, came to fame as the owner of a navigation guide which purportedly proved that Chinese people fished in the Spratly and Paracel islands centuries ago. He has since been told not to speak to foreign media.Credit: Sanghee Liu

A small fishing trawler boarded by Mr Xi – the Qionghai 09045 – is now permanently docked in Tanmen's small harbour, overlooking a row of seafood eateries and stores spruiking ornate jade-like sculptures carved and polished from the shells of giant clams, ostensibly a protected species due to over-harvesting. A giant photograph of Mr Xi meeting locals has pride of place in the town square.

Subsequently, the Hainan provincial government has sought to promote, fund and recruit more militia, for the express purpose of protecting China's interests in the South China Sea, according to a recent paper by Andrew Erickson, an associate professor at the US Naval War College, and Conor Kennedy, a research fellow at the college's China Maritime Studies Institute.

Zhou, 40, has been fishing for 20 years in the South China Sea and is preparing to sail to the Spratly Islands again.Credit: Philip Wen

"Seen as brave patriotic mariners opposing incursions by foreign navy and coast guard vessels, and aided by the political steamroller that is executing China's long-term strategy of becoming a great maritime power, these grass root actors joining paramilitary organisations are creating a gray area difficult for other navies, or even coast guards, to deal with," the paper says.

China's long-term South China Sea strategy involves a mix of changing facts on the ground through reclamation, construction and increased patrols, and bolstering its historic claims, which largely hinge on the idea that its fishermen have been active there for centuries. In Tanmen, it is building a brand new South China Sea museum.

Chinese state media have recently trumpeted the discovery of a genglubu, a 600-year-old family document passed down through generations of Tanmen fishermen detailing how to navigate to the Spratlys, hundreds of nautical miles away. The owner, 81-year-old collector and former fisherman Su Chengfen, was shown poring over the document, "iron-clad proof" that Chinese fishermen were in the South China Sea first.

But when a BBC crew visited him this month to corroborate his find, Su said he had "thrown away" the historic document because it had become old, tattered and illegible.

By the time Fairfax Media reached him at his home, he was too nervous to speak to strangers at all. The government, he said, had sent people to his home to warn him "not to speak irresponsibly".

The lure of Beijing's subsidies

Emboldened by state backing, as well as the lure of a richer catch compared to the depleted stores in nearer seas, China's increasingly adventurous fishing fleet now has growing troubles with authorities in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.

South China Sea.

China blames US President Barack Obama's strategic rebalance or "pivot" to Asia for militarising the South China Sea and, through its implicit backing, urging many of China's neighbours in the region to coordinate a united response, albeit with limited success.

Many locals are unwilling to stake their lives on riskier voyages to the Spratlys.

But there are plenty of others, including migrants from poor inland provinces, lured by the prospect of a bigger payday. There are subsidies for fuel, for workers' wages, even for shipbuilding and repairs. There is Chinese mobile phone coverage on the Paracels and troops based there routinely welcome Chinese fishermen to their bases for a shower and a warm meal.

But ultimately the motivator is cold hard cash, with fishermen standing to earn multiples of what they usually get depending on the distance and time travelled on their voyage.

"If it's not for the subsidies, the bosses wouldn't be able to go on," said Zhou, a seaman from Hunan who said his captain was preparing to set off for the Spratlys once the bad weather cleared. "It's just a living, after all."