DR. DENNIS MUNENE
In the 21st century, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is an existential threat to the global effort toward responsible governance and the sustainable development of fisheries.
Both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 explicitly call for urgent global action to end IUU.
Countries such as China, India, Indonesia and Japan, along with other island and coastal nations, which are the world’s largest consumers of fish, bear the greatest responsibility to curb IUU and advance global and continental strategies.
With this in mind, China, one of the largest consumers of fish, has been actively participating in global marine fisheries governance, protecting marine fishery resources, and safeguarding the international fisheries order.
Strategically, China has joined eight regional fisheries management organizations.
These are the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation, the North Pacific Fisheries Commission, and the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement.
Through these RFMOs, China circulates the published list of IUU fishing vessels to all its domestic ports, and denies the listed vessels access to Chinese ports. Also, China does not allow such vessels to engage in unloading, replenishment, or refueling at Chinese ports.
Further, China dispatches law enforcement vessels to the high seas to conduct fisheries enforcement patrols, and combat IUU fishing.
For instance, since being granted the authority to board and inspect fishing vessels on the high seas of the North Pacific in June 2020, the China Coast Guard has, within the framework of the NPFC, conducted multiple related operations. Through vessel patrols, boarding inspections, and helicopter aerial patrols, it has fulfilled its responsibility for the conservation of high seas fisheries resources and cracked down on illegal fishing.
Similarly, China has taken the initiative to implement high seas fishing moratoriums, demonstrating its sense of responsibility as a major country through voluntary actions. In 2020, China piloted voluntary fishing moratoriums in parts of the high seas in the Southwest Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific, and the northern Indian Ocean, formally implementing them in 2021 and 2022 subsequently. This innovative measure has strongly promoted the conservation and long-term sustainable use of high seas fisheries resources.
This notwithstanding, in April 2025, China officially acceded to the Agreement on Port State Measures to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing. Spearheaded by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the agreement aims to prevent fish caught through illegal fishing from entering international and domestic markets. It also ensures the long-term conservation and sustainable use of marine biological resources and marine ecosystems.
The Agreement was concluded in Rome on November 22, 2009, and entered into force on June 5, 2016. It currently has 85 Parties, covering 111 countries, about three-quarters of the world’s coastal states. This Agreement is perceived as one of the most important international treaties in global fisheries governance and the fight against illegal fishing.
Furthermore, China continues to fulfil its obligations since acceding to the Port State Measures Agreement last year. It has established a multi-departmental work coordination mechanism and designated a national contact point for implementation of the Agreement. It has standardized port inspections, completed the designation of the first batch of 23 ports, and organized port inspections of foreign fishing vessels.
It has also guided Chinese-flagged distant-water fishing vessels in accepting inspections by other port states. This level of accountability has led to the nomination of a Chinese expert to be the representative for the Asian region in the Working Group on the Sustainable Operation of the Port State Measures Agreement.
Finally, being aware that global marine governance still faces severe challenges, and that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing persists despite repeated prohibitions, China continues to intensify oversight and punishment of its own distant-water fishing vessels, while taking concrete actions to strengthen the conservation of fishery resources in high seas areas.
China is a staunch advocate of international ocean fisheries governance under the UN framework. Having not signed the Mombasa Declaration during the 11th Our Ocean Conference hosted in Kenya in June this year does not mean that China is not willing to support governance approaches to IUU.
Other major countries such as the US, India and the host country, Kenya, didn’t sign the Mombasa Declaration neither.
Dr. Dennis Munene is the Executive Director of the China – Africa Center at the Africa Policy Institute
