Chinese Navy keeps Miri fishermen away from Shoals

Only Chinese boats are allowed to enter Luconia Shoals and fish in the waters.

MIRI: Local fishermen have not been able to fish in the seas in the Luconia Shoals area off northern Sarawak since May because they are still being chased away from there and threatened by the Chinese Navy, according to Councilor Jamali Basri who heads the Miri Fishermen’s Association.

Luconia Shoals, locally known as Gugusan Beting Patinggi Ali, is a cluster of shoals and reef complexes, 65 nautical miles north-west of the oil-rich Miri town, in the South China Sea.

“The area clearly is in Malaysian waters and our fishermen should be able to fish there,” said Jamali. “However, our fishermen are being chased away from Gugusan Beting Patinggi Ali and even threatened by the Chinese Navy.”

Jamali said the Chinese Navy has in fact been present in the Gugusan since 2013. “Only fishing boats from China are allowed to enter the area and fish.”

It has been learnt that the Foreign Ministry has been lodging weekly protests with Beijing over the presence of the Chinese Navy in Luconia. China, which is 4,000 km away, claims that Luconia, which is just outside the Spratly Islands, belongs to it.