Twice in the last couple of months, the Chinese have sent orders to hundred of fishing boats to drop everything and form a wall “at least 200 miles long,” The New York Times reports (January 20, 2026). “The formation was so dense that some approaching cargo ships appeared to skirt around them or had to zigzag through, ship-tracking data showed.”
About 2,000 boats formed up on December 25, 2025 and about 1,400 on January 11 of this year. The Times report is a follow-up of observations by Jason Wang, CEO of the data-analyzing company ingeniSPACE. The Times also relied on ship-location data provided by Starboard Maritime Intelligence.
The fishing boats assembled in the East China Sea, near major shipping lanes that branch out from Shanghai, among the world’s busiest ports. Cargo ships crisscross the sea daily, including ones carrying Chinese exports to the United States….
“My best guess is this was an exercise to see how the civilians would do if told to muster at scale in a future contingency, perhaps in support of quarantine, blockade, or other pressure tactics against Taiwan,” [said Gregory Poling of Center for Strategic and International Studies]….
The boat maneuvers in January took place shortly after Beijing held two days of military exercises around Taiwan, including practicing naval maneuvers to blockade the island. Beijing is also in a bitter dispute with Japan over its support for Taiwan.
The fishing boat operations could have been held to signal “opposition to Japan” or practice for possible confrontations with Japan or Taiwan, said Andrew S. Erickson, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College who studies China’s maritime activities….
China has in recent years used maritime militia fishing boats in dozens or even hundreds to support its navy, sometimes by swarming, maneuvering dangerously close, and physically bumping other boats in disputes with other countries.
The recent massing of boats appeared to show that maritime militia units are becoming more organized and better equipped with navigation and communications technology.
One of the analysts cited by the Times, Lonnie Henley, a former intelligence officer, says the success of the drills “does mark an improvement in their ability to marshal and control a large number of militia vessels. That’s one of the main challenges to making the maritime militia a useful tool for either combat support or sovereignty protection.”
