Photos of shoppers in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian Province, thronging around cases of frozen fish and sea urchins circulated in China on Wednesday. This was no ordinary seafood, however. It was from Mischief Reef, which has been controlled by China since 1994 but is part of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea also claimed by the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

“You can steam it, make soup, braise, slice or fry it — it’s all possible!” Lin Zailiang, 82, a former government official who heads the fish-farming program, told the gathered shoppers. Behind him, a blue billboard advertised the products as “South China Sea ‘Patriotic Fish’ — the Third Season.” The entire 8,300 pounds of seafood sold out in two hours, according to the state-run China News Service.

Cultivating fish at Mischief Reef, called Meiji Reef by the Chinese, is equivalent to “safeguarding national sovereignty,” Mr. Lin was quoted as saying. “Because once there are residents there — us — it becomes our territory, according to international ocean law.”

Mr. Lin began cultivating fish at Mischief Reef in 2007. Teams of 11 or 12 fishermen from Mr. Lin’s home county, Pingtan, manage the project, spending three months at a time at the reef.

The transportation costs alone would suggest that this is no mere commercial undertaking. A relative of Mr. Lin’s told China News Service that it takes three days to ship the fish from Mischief Reef to the southern city of Sanya, where it is frozen and processed, before being sent 1,240 miles to Fuzhou. Mr. Lin has sold fish cultivated at the reef for the past three years, the report said.

Mischief Reef has also been identified as the testing site for what would be China’s first mobile fish production base.

[Source: Sinosphere. Full article]