This is a 2016 interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo with a Tanmen fisherman named Deng Yehe recalled his fishing in Nansha and was caught, the interviewed Deng Yehe has more than 50 years of experience in offshore fishing, in the 80s of the last century, Deng Yehe was held by the Malaysian Navy for 48 hours, he recalled the scene at that time:
Malaysian special forces "Pascal" often appear in the South China Sea
After the interview, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo published a special report entitled "An 'Invincible Navy' to Defend China", the core purpose of the report was to hype up the theory of the China threat, one of which said: "
Tanmen fishermen are also well aware of the intentions of the Spanish media, stressing in the interview: "We don't want to talk too much about Nansha." ”
Le Monde also rendered:
The Spanish media had impure intentions, but the report was right about what it said: Chinese fishermen were the backbone of defending sovereignty over territorial waters, and Chinese fishermen had completed their mission to conquer the South China Sea with their wooden sailboats and the "Changing Routes".
The "Changing Routes" is a navigation manual used by fishermen in the South China Sea since the Ming Dynasty, which not only records the voyage and course to a certain area, but also records in detail the names and exact locations of the islands, islands and reefs in the South China Sea. The time it takes for fishermen to burn incense at sea is one shift, and one shift can generally travel about 10 nautical miles. After many years of oral transmission, manuscripts began to exist, which have been in existence for more than 600 years in different manuscripts from the Ming Dynasty, that is, in the early 15th century before Zheng He went to the West.
Manuscript of the Book of Changing Routes
For more than 600 years, the routes recorded in the "Changing Routes" have covered all the islands and reefs in the South China Sea, and this alone proves that China has indisputable sovereignty over Nanhai Zhudao and its adjacent waters, and if there is no 30-year ban on the sea and no fishermen are allowed to fish in the Nansha Islands, perhaps not a single island or reef in the Nansha Islands will be invaded.
The route listed in the "Book of Changes".
In the "Changing Routes", the fishermen gave "milk names" to 136 islands and reefs in the South China Sea for their own convenient positioning and orientation in production and communication, and these "milk names" were conventionally established in the fishermen's oral and simple records.
These "milk names" were originally named for the purpose of describing the region, identifying the islands and reefs, determining the position of the ship, and guiding production, and later the state was adopted on a large scale when the "official name" was destined for the islands and reefs in the South China Sea, and many of the names of the islands and reefs came from the "Book of Changing Roads", such as the Ghost Crying Reef in the Jiuzhang Reef of Nansha came from the land name "Ghost Shouting Line" in the "Book of Changing Roads", and the Ghost Shouting Reef was illegally occupied by Vietnam in 1988, and it is close to Chigua Island of the Chinese garrison, and it is now a group of islands and reefs with the strongest sense of confrontation in the South China Sea.
Ghost Cry Reef (Viet Occupied) and Chigua Island
According to the record of the "Changing the Road Book", Hainan fishermen have been working on the West and Nansha Islands for a long time, with a time span of nearly 1,000 years, and they and the South China Sea Islands are a complete life chain composed of exploration, production, life, planting and breeding, death and burial, and spiritual belief sustenance, among which the key role is production and life, after using the "Changing the Road Book" to the South China Sea District, the fishing products are no longer fish and shrimp, but horseshoe snails, clams, sea cucumbers, sea turtles, oysters and sea grass. In the past, you couldn't make a lot of money selling fish, but the seafood in the South China Sea is different, a boatload of clams pulled back, tens of thousands of yuan or even hundreds of thousands of yuan!
The fact that we can make money shows that this economic chain and production chain can exist for a long time, and it is enough to prove that Nanhai Zhudao has been a sea area where the Chinese people have lived for a long time and the Chinese government has long controlled and governed it since ancient times, and the Chinese government has never stopped making clear claims about sovereignty over the South China Sea since ancient times.
Regrettably, the Chinese government has never ceased to assert its sovereignty over the South China Sea, with a 30-year hiatus to fishing during the 1956-1986 no-sea policy, during which time the navy did not have the strength to regularly patrol the Spratlys, resulting in the occupation of all natural islands in the Spratly Islands by neighboring countries except Taiping Island.
The Nansha Islands are manned and occupied
Now the fishermen's "change of route" to Nansha has long been replaced by the Beidou terminal, and the wooden sailing boats have been upgraded to large steel fishing boats, as long as they are organized, the fishermen's role in safeguarding the territorial sovereignty of Nansha will only be greater than in the past, and last year hundreds of Chinese fishing boats in the waters of Oxbow Reef were called "militia fishing boats" by Vietnam and the Philippines.
Large fishing vessels in the waters of Oxbow Reef
Since the 70s of the last century, Chinese fishermen have been pursued for a long time in Nansha, and their property has been confiscated at the least, and they have to face prison at worst, or even be directly beaten to death.
On June 29, 2021, the "July 1st Medal" awarding ceremony to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China was held in the Great Hall of the People.
Wang Shumao is also the deputy company commander of the Tanmen Maritime Militia Company, and has participated in a number of major national sea-related work, cultivated non-governmental forces to defend rights in the South China Sea, and charged ahead in the struggle to defend rights in the South China Sea.
Wang Shumao, winner of the "July 1st Medal".
Wang Shumao was born in a marine family, his ancestors have been fishing for a living, at the age of 18, he began to follow his father with more than 30 tons of wooden boats to break into the South China Sea, not only mastered the skillful boating, diving, fishing skills, but also very familiar with the sea conditions, in 1985 took the initiative to apply to join the militia organization, in 1988 began to support the construction of 7 islands and reefs such as Chigua, Dongmen, Nanxun, Huayang, etc., led the militia brothers to dispatch more than 800 batches of fishing boats, transported more than 4 million tons of various building materials, and assisted in completing the construction tasks of a number of islands and reefs.
One day in 1996, Wang Shumao, who was fishing, discovered that a certain country's personnel wanted to invade an uninhabited island and reef, and he immediately led the militia to hold on to the island and reef for seven days and seven nights, forcing back the country's attempt to occupy the uninhabited reef.
During the 2012 "Scarborough Shoal Incident", Wang Shumao and his fishing boat also enthusiastically guarded them, and in the face of unreasonable provocations by foreign fishermen wearing weapons, he resolutely ordered them to stand in front of them and prevent them from illegally crossing the mainland's territorial waters.
Wang Shumao is organizing militia training (Photo by Hainan Daily reporter Song Guoqiang)
Wang Shumao is most proud of participating in the construction of Mischief Island, Mischief Island is controlled by the fishery department, fishermen are deeply involved in the construction of the Nansha Islands and reefs, according to his recollection of the first time to set foot on Mischief Reef is still an atoll that will only be exposed at low tide, the soldiers stationed on it had to build a simple stilt house on it, and even drinking water has to be replenished from other places, seeing that Mischief Reef has now become the largest island in Nansha, and is expected to become a beautiful modern tourist city in the South China Sea in the future, a sense of accomplishment and happiness will come to mind, and those who want to participate in the struggle know that all this is not easy to come by。
A corner of the majestic Mischief Island
In 2013, Wang Shumao responded to the government's call and was the first to contract a steel fishing boat of more than 850 tons, taking the lead in driving a large ship and going to the open sea. A large number of advanced fishing vessels equipped with the Beidou navigation system are operating in Nansha for production, which is the most direct way to safeguard the sovereignty of the territorial waters.
Previously, it was a 30-ton wooden sailing boat, and the surrounding countries wanted to catch it, but now there are a large number of 1,000-ton fishing boats, and the ordinary coast guard of the surrounding countries may not be helpless to catch it, with the increase of fishermen on expeditions to the Nansha Islands, the Chinese fishermen rendered by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo have become an "invincible navy" to defend the South China Sea or soon become a reality, and we firmly believe that the South China Sea will not lose another island and reef, and the occupied ones will be recovered one by one.
Hainan is a large fishing boat ready to go
[Some pictures are from the Internet, please do not copy and reprint without permission]