Thousands of ships off China’s coast vanish.

Thousands of ships off China’s coast vanish.
Thousands of ships have apparently vanished in the seas around China only to reappear days later, with a new law in Beijing blamed.
Now entire ships have begun to vanish as they enter Chinese waters — from industry tracking systems.

Since the start of the month, vessels from around the globe, from tankers to cargo ships, have disappeared from global tracking systems as they have entered some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes close to Chinese ports.

As the ships leave Chinese waters they reappear again.

By some estimates, tracking pings from ships near China have fallen by 90 per cent in just a few weeks.

An increasing desire by Beijing to isolate itself from the rest of the world is being blamed for the blank spot.

State television has raised concerns that foreign organisations could be plundering “valuable military and economic intelligence” via maritime tracking systems.

There are now fears China’s new found reluctance to share information on vessels in its waters could impact global supply chains as shipping companies have less visibility on where their boats are.

Supply chains were already under “great stress,” said a spokesman from an impacted marine tracking firm. “It doesn’t need another factor to make it more difficult”.
The drop off in signals from ships in and near China began to be noticed at the beginning of the month.

On November 1, a new law came into effect in China restricting foreign access to any data – potentially including shipping data – deemed to have a bearing on national or economic security.

On the same day, a report on the government controlled China Central Television (CCTV) Focus news program stated that “suspicious radio equipment” had been found in the home of radio enthusiast close to a military base and commercial port in Zhanjiang in the country’s south, west of Hong Kong.

The broadcast said the radio ham had installed the equipment which would aid in the global tracking of ships “in real time via the internet”.

The man had no qualms about his high tech delivery. After all, collecting data on the movement of ships is nothing new.

The major way maritime vessels are tracked is through the automatic identification system, or AIS, which is a kind of air traffic control for the seas. It uses transceivers fitted on vessels to transmit their position. This data is then picked up by other vessels, satellites or AIS base stations on land.

The information can show an individual vessel’s position, speed, name and destination. It’s considered vital in modern shipping and allows ships, particularly in busy sea lanes, to know where the position of other vessels are to avoid collisions. It also gives an overview of maritime congestion and allows anyone who wants to, to keep a tab on commercial vessels.

The International Maritime Organisation requires all vessels of 300 or more gross tonnage to have an AIS transceiver.
China has long hosted AIS base stations. The more AIS base stations, the more accurate the information on a ship’s location.

But authorities have become concerned at compact AIS base stations, such as the one in Zhanjiang, popping up on people’s balconies. The CCTV report suggested the information they could pick up was a “hidden mystery” that could be exploited by nefarious overseas governments

There are now hundreds ofbase stations dotted around China’s coastline and near navigable inland waterways and Beijing doesn't know where they all are or who is paying for them.

The CCTV report said some maritime data firms “have long served overseas spy agencies”.

“Foreign institutions, enterprises, and even spy intelligence agencies wantonly grabbing important data resources in related fields of our country have brought serious harm to national security,” it stated.
The shutting down of many of these base stations looks to be have been one consequence of the new data privacy legislation.

The laws mean that data firms have to receive Beijing’s approval before personal or sensitive information leaves the country.