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Thousands of Chinese boats mass at sea, raising questions
AFP via MSN ^ | 13 March 2026 | AFP

Posted on 03/13/2026 7:25:28 PM PDT by Alas Babylon!

Thousands of Chinese fishing boats have been massing in geometric formations in the East China Sea, in coordinated actions that experts believe are part of Beijing's preparations for a potential regional crisis or conflict.

Monitoring ship-tracking data on Christmas Day, Jason Wang could tell something "unusual" was underway as fishing boats swarmed into two parallel inverted Ls,each about 400 kilometres (about 250 miles) long.

Wang could see the roughly 2,000 fishing boats among the many thousands of vessels that ply the busy waterway through their automatic identification systems (AIS) -- a GPS-type signal that commercial ships use to avoid collisions.

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 202512; 20251225; 202601; 20260111; ais; asia; boats; china; chinasea; eastchinasea; exercises; fishingboats; fishingfleet; geometricformations; geometry; lformations; maneuvers; navy; pacific

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This article covers two events; one on 25 Dec 2025 and the other on 11 Jan 2026, so this isn't part of the US action in the Middle East.

What it is is unknown. Sounds like some strange drill of their fishermen militia, if such a thing exists.

1 posted on 03/13/2026 7:25:28 PM PDT by Alas Babylon!
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To: Alas Babylon!

Infographic with maps of the East China Sea, showing geometric formations of about 2,000 Chinese fishing boats on December 25, 2025 and about 1,000 on January 11, 2026 detected via the vessels' automatic identification systems, a GPS-type signal that commercial ships use to avoid collisions, based on data analysed by AFP © Patricio ARANA
2 posted on 03/13/2026 7:26:20 PM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Conservatives can't afford to sit out. Vote like your freedom depends on it, it does!)
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To: Alas Babylon!

Was one of the boats named “Wicked Pissa”?


3 posted on 03/13/2026 7:35:04 PM PDT by IrishPennant (Days may go by slow...but the years go by so fast!)
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To: Alas Babylon!
Interesting location.

Laying remote seafloor mines?

4 posted on 03/13/2026 7:42:29 PM PDT by thescourged1 (Rush, is it time to panic yet? )
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To: Alas Babylon!

will keep Japan from sending any naval forces to help Taiwan. It’s on...


5 posted on 03/13/2026 7:43:27 PM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin (Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)
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To: Alas Babylon!

Maybe a Dunkirk-style evacuation.


6 posted on 03/13/2026 8:03:24 PM PDT by GingisK
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To: Alas Babylon!

It doesn’t seem reasonable that they could pull this off with a fishing fleet with no operational leakage.

This may be some kind of hack of the ship tracking networks, Perhaps an attack on the satellites, and perhaps an attack on the Internet.


7 posted on 03/13/2026 8:03:26 PM PDT by The Free Engineer
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To: The Free Engineer

Yeah. It is weird. Strange. 4000 boats in a 250-mile-long line.


8 posted on 03/13/2026 8:07:35 PM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Conservatives can't afford to sit out. Vote like your freedom depends on it, it does!)
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To: Alas Babylon!

Blocking action for submarine detection? Either for detection of vessels by submarines or to prevent detection of their own submarines?


9 posted on 03/13/2026 8:08:27 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (Opinions and belly buttons, everybody has one and they get to show them if they want to.)
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

Wow. It could very well be on…


10 posted on 03/13/2026 8:12:06 PM PDT by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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To: The Free Engineer

I wonder what equipment those boats could possibly be carrying…


11 posted on 03/13/2026 8:13:17 PM PDT by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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To: Alas Babylon!

The US is busy in the Mideast so the rat is planning something devious on the other side of the world.


12 posted on 03/13/2026 8:17:54 PM PDT by Chgogal (The NYT is the mouthpiece of the violent left-wing Democrat Pa)
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To: Alas Babylon!

Dwight D. Eisenhower would be impressed. LOL!


13 posted on 03/13/2026 8:18:04 PM PDT by MotorCityBuck (Keep the Change You Filthy Animal !)
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To: IrishPennant

Was one of the boats named “Wicked Pissa”?
I think so. see it here.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:65.4/centery:26.9/zoom:7


14 posted on 03/13/2026 8:21:10 PM PDT by kvanbrunt2
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To: Alas Babylon!

Trump made a mistake in moving the Marines away from Japan.


15 posted on 03/13/2026 8:25:45 PM PDT by moviefan8
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To: Alas Babylon!
The inscrutable chinaman.

"

16 posted on 03/13/2026 8:31:10 PM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie ( O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and his mercy endures forever. — Psalm 106)
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To: Alas Babylon!

MARINE TRAFFIC. See the world’s boating traffic here. Very interesting:

https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=c390d0480c4d0b237c06592912d5b33ffb38c3ec46ab5ec16fe4fa5af1eff392JmltdHM9MTc3MzM2MDAwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=2e72bc51-e265-6436-1ce5-a954e3db6507&psq=MARINE+TRAFFIC+KEPLR&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubWFyaW5ldHJhZmZpYy5jb20vZW4vYWlzL2hvbWUvY2VudGVyeDotMTIuMC9jZW50ZXJ5OjI0Ljkvem9vbTo0


17 posted on 03/13/2026 8:35:22 PM PDT by subterfuge (I'm a pure-blood!)
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To: telescope115

There may be just 20 boats and this is a test of spoofing the system.


18 posted on 03/13/2026 8:52:28 PM PDT by The Free Engineer
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To: Alas Babylon!

Sounds ultra series. If they all jump up and down at the same time, will the world tilt on its axis?


19 posted on 03/13/2026 9:00:47 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

“It’s on...”
Doesn’t surprise me.
Time to start expelling Chinese “visitors” from the US and throw Tampon Walz along in other democrat CCP operatives in concentration camps. They’ve been expecting it anyway.


20 posted on 03/13/2026 9:19:29 PM PDT by doc maverick
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