China may boost patrols in South China Sea

China may convert more decommissioned navy ships into fishery patrol vessels, state media said on Thursday, as it seeks to extend its reach over disputed South China Sea islands that straddle key Asian shipping lanes.

The report comes less than two weeks after Chinese boats jostled with a U.S. naval ocean surveillance vessel that Beijing said was conducting an illegal survey in its waters.

China's use of fishery patrol ships, rather than military vessels, helps mark its stance while avoiding direct confrontation with the U.S. or with rival claimants to the resource-rich and strategically important South China Sea.

"In some ways this should be seen as a positive signal, that they don't wish to escalate the situation or provoke further clashes as might be the case if warships were involved," said Sam Bateman, of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

Asian states were increasingly using coastguard fleets rather than their navies to defend claims to maritime borders, without provoking a bigger confrontation, he said.

"China will make the best use of its (retired) naval ships and may also build more fishery patrol ships, depending on the need," Wu Zhuang, director of the Administration of Fishery and Fishing Harbour Supervision of the South China Sea, told the China Daily. It did not say if the boats would be armed.

Beijing's military build-up has contributed to a sense of unease in parts of Asia, especially Taiwan, a self-ruled island China claims as its own and which it has vowed to bring under mainland control, by force if necessary.

The South China Sea and access to the Straits of Malacca are crucial to China's plans should war ever break out with Taiwan.

China earlier this week sent its largest fishery patrol ship, the Yuzheng 311, to the waters around the Spratly Islands, a cluster of islets and atolls that lie north of Borneo island, an area rich in fishing and with significant oil and gas deposits.

"Faced with a growing amount of illegal fishing and other countries' unfounded territorial claims of islands in China's exclusive economic zone, it has become necessary to step up the fishery administration's patrols to protect China's rights and interests," the China Daily quoted Wu as saying.

SPRATLY SPAT

The Spratlys are claimed by China, as well as in full or in part by Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. Several of them have moved to bolster their own claims recently.

"We have reiterated China's position on the South China Sea many times," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. That position was "indisputable sovereign rights" over the area and that it was justified in exercising those rights, he added.

The Philippines signed a law last week laying claim to part of the Spratlys and separate Scarborough Shoal. Malaysia's prime minister on March 5 landed on Swallow Reef and Ardasier Reef, also in the Spratly archipelago, to assert his country's claim.

"The Philippines has passed a law that is very controversial and that is not very smart diplomatically," said a Foreign Ministry official in Taiwan.

Asked about China's claim, the official said: "I am sure they'll express their will in a more aggressive way."

Vietnam said it was paying attention to the movement of the Yuzheng 311. The Philippine navy said it was unconcerned.

The last time China's navy engaged in battle was in 1996, when three of its ships had a brief shootout with a Philippine gun boat in the South China Sea. Two years later, the Philippine navy arrested Chinese fishermen off Scarborough Shoal.

Sending a fishery patrol showed China "exercised moderation", Chinese media cited Su Hao, head of China Foreign Affairs University's Asia-Pacific Research Centre, as saying this week.

"MORE MILITARY, AGGRESSIVE, FORWARD-LOOKING"

The shortest route between the Pacific and Indian oceans, the South China Sea has some of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Over half the globe's oil tanker traffic passes through the sea, which has valuable fishing and unexploited oil and gas fields.

The United States assigned an escort to its naval survey vessel Impeccable, which was harassed in early March by five Chinese boats in waters that China claims as its exclusive economic zone. China objected to the U.S. ship spying so close to its coast.

U.S. National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told Congress last week the Chinese had become more assertive in staking claims to international waters around economic zones.

But U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Chinese were not trying to force the U.S. Pacific fleet from the region.

"The U.S. position is that we don't have a dog in this fight, unless any parties start taking positions that cramp the freedom of the high seas," said Ron Huisken, of the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.

In a sign of its growing clout, China in December sent three naval vessels to help tackle piracy off Somalia, its biggest blue water operation outside the region.

By Lucy Hornby

BEIJING, March 19 (Reuters)