VZCZCXRO3762
PP RUEHCHI RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHFK RUEHGH RUEHHM RUEHKSO RUEHPB RUEHVC
DE RUEHHK #2136/01 3240953
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 200953Z NOV 09
FM AMCONSUL HONG KONG
TO RUEHZU/ASIAN PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION PRIORITY
RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS PRIORITY
RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA PRIORITY 0120
RUEHAN/AMEMBASSY ANTANANARIVO PRIORITY 0003
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 3715
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 0038
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM PRIORITY 0178
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0768
RUEHMK/AMEMBASSY MANAMA PRIORITY 0107
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI PRIORITY 0070
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 1413
RUEHYN/AMEMBASSY SANAA PRIORITY 0018
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY
RUENAAA/SECNAV WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO PRIORITY 0009
RUCOWCY/COGARD AMR NEW YORK NY PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0035
RULSJGA/COMDT COGARD WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9001
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HONG KONG 002136 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM 
STATE ALSO FOR PM/PPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/16/2019 
TAGS: PHSA EWWT ATRN PREL KPIR KCRM SO BA CH HK
SUBJECT: CHINA WANTS TO LEAD INTERNATIONAL FIGHT ON SOMALI 
PIRATES 
 
Classified By: Acting Consul General Christopher Marut for reasons 1.4 
(b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On November 13, at a well-attended private 
sector-organized International Piracy Conference, senior 
Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy officers stated 
China was committed to deploying its fleet to the Horn of 
Africa (HOA) until the region was stable and secure.  They 
urged greater international cooperation in combating maritime 
piracy, in line with Beijing's official request in early 
November to co-lead multinational anti-piracy coordination 
efforts in Bahrain, known as SHADE (Shared Awareness and 
Deconfliction).  European officials speaking at the 
conference announced China would soon be alternating SHADE 
leadership with the EU, NATO, and Combined Maritime Forces 
(CMF), described changing pirate tactics, and warned the 
Somali piracy problem was quickly evolving into an Indian 
Ocean problem, threatening vital Europe-Asia sea lanes. 
Conference attendees strongly opposed the arming of merchant 
ships and called for a stronger international naval force 
presence.  END SUMMARY 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
China Urges Cooperation on Piracy Fight; Wants to Lead 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Speaking at the inaugural International Piracy 
Conference in Hong Kong on November 13, Senior Captain Hu 
Gang Feng, the Beijing-based PLA Deputy Director of Naval 
Bureau, Operations Department of General Staff Headquarters, 
and Commander Liang Wei, Deputy Chief of Operations for the 
PLA Navy's South Sea Fleet, explained China would commit its 
naval resources to Somali anti-piracy operations and fulfill 
its international obligations until security and stability 
was brought to the region.  The conference, co-hosted by Hong 
Kong's branch of the Nautical Institute (NI) and the Hong 
Kong Ship Owners Association (HKSOA), was attended by over 
140 members of Hong Kong's maritime industry, including ship 
owners, managers, financiers, lawyers, insurers, and 
suppliers, as well as a large press corps.  The high level of 
attendance can be explained in part by timing, coming just 
two days after Hong Kong-flagged oil tanker, the BW Lion, 
escaped a two-hour Somali pirate attack 1,000 nautical miles 
east of Mogadishu, and coinciding with ongoing negotiations 
for the release of the hijacked Chinese ship De Xin Hai and 
its crew of 25 on October 19. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Since December 2008, China has deployed four warship 
contingents of three-vessels each to Somali waters, the 
latest of which arrived November 13.  As of November 11, 
China had assisted 1,110 merchant ships along the Gulf of 
Aden (GOA) and the Somali Basin (SB) through convoy escorts, 
security patrols, and the onboard deployment of special 
tactical units on some Chinese-flagged vessels, Hu reported. 
For his part, Liang stated that China would send two to three 
additional contingents to the HOA this year and that the 
pirate situation would dictate the tempo of future 
deployment.  Liang added China was committed and had the 
capabilities to protect its merchant fleet but would like to 
enhance international cooperation and bring multiplier 
effects to regional peace and security efforts, while also 
benefiting from unprecedented multinational participation. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Hu deployed with the second PLA contingent to Somali 
 
HONG KONG 00002136  002 OF 003 
 
 
waters from April to August and recommended greater 
intelligence sharing among international navies on piracy 
activity and methods, as well as sharing naval tactics and 
capabilities between members of the international naval 
security and escort force.  Hu's recommendation echoed a 
November 10 official request by Beijing authorities to allow 
it to co-lead monthly anti-piracy meetings in Bahrain.  The 
monthly SHADE meetings serve to coordinate and plan 
deployments for the over 40 navies participating in 
anti-piracy activities off the Somali coast.  The EU, NATO, 
and CMF currently rotate SHADE's leadership role. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
SHADE Welcomes Opportunity to Collaborate with China 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Royal Navy Commodore Timothy Lowe, Deputy Commander 
for CMF, briefed attendees on increased pirate activity far 
beyond the GOA and the SB since August 2008.  Pirates were 
changing tactics, he said, to employ "mother" ships in 
support of smaller assault skiffs, allowing them to move away 
from the coast.  Lowe lamented that the counter-piracy navies 
had limited assets to patrol such an expansive area and were 
constantly pulled away for other regional missions, such as 
countering drug and human trafficking, terrorism, or to 
pursue individual mandates, such as the EU's protection of 
World Food Program (WFP) shipping and ad-hoc protection of 
national merchant vessels by their countries' navies.  Lowe 
announced the additional commitment of naval assets by the 
EU, Russia, Malaysia, Iran, and India, and welcomed China's 
recent request to join international coordination efforts. 
 
¶6. (C) Noting China would undoubtedly join SHADE "in the very 
near future," Commodore Lowe confided to EconOff at the end 
of the conference the challenges faced during the early 
November meetings he attended in Beijing, when China 
officially made its request to join.  His frustration 
emanated from what he described was the Chinese military 
leaders' unwillingness to or unfamiliarity with "compromise." 
 However, Lowe and a large number of conference attendees 
expressed "surprise" at the ease and confidence with which 
Senior Captain Hu and Commander Liang addressed participants 
and the media throughout the conference, including a one-hour 
panel discussion, perhaps an indication that PLA officials 
are slowly embracing the notion of multinational cooperation. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
Somali Piracy Evolving into Indian Ocean Piracy 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶7. (SBU) Mr. Simon Church, Industry Liaison Officer for the 
Marine Security Center, Horn of Africa (MSCHOA), European 
Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR), warned attendees that the 
piracy threat off Somali waters was quickly spreading to the 
vital Europe-Asia sea lanes of the Indian Ocean.  He cited 
the recent attack on the BW Lion close to the distant 
Seychelles islands and an up-tick in pirate activity near the 
Indian coast, beyond the 62nd meridian East.  He attributed 
the long range attacks to calmer seas as the monsoon season 
came to a close and to the presence of pirate "mother" ships 
in the area.  Church endorsed existing maritime industry Best 
Management Practices (BMP) to deter piracy, such as (1) 
enhancing ship perimeter defenses with high pressure water 
hoses, barbed wire, netting, and sandbags; (2) deploying 
 
HONG KONG 00002136  003 OF 003 
 
 
watch officers around the clock; (3) training in evasive sea 
maneuvering techniques; and (4) communicating with the United 
Kingdom's Maritime Trade Office (UKMTO) in Dubai when 
transiting these waters. 
 
---------------------------------- 
Law Enforcement on the Money Trail 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Hong Kong Police Superintendent Lawrence Wong, 
seconded as team leader to INTERPOL's Criminal Organizations 
and Violent Crime Unit in Lyon, France, explained the 
organization's involvement in the fight against Somali 
piracy, a cross border crime.  Wong introduced INTERPOL's 
maritime anti-piracy Project Bada (Korean word for ocean) and 
announced the INTERPOL Global Conference on Maritime Piracy 
Financial Investigations to be held early next year in Lyon. 
The conference would look at topics such as the global money 
trail of piracy operations, money laundering, asset recovery, 
and known piracy financing methods. 
 
¶9. (C) Privately, Wong expressed frustration with the 
international community's reluctance to prosecute pirates 
outside the Horn of Africa, the lack of law enforcement 
capacity in the African region, and the slow pace of judicial 
courts in the few regional countries willing to prosecute 
these crimes.  He said that at present, the Somali pirates' 
"business model" was one of high profit returns and little 
operational risk, which would continue to pose challenges on 
the high seas unless law and order improved in Somali shores. 
 If there were evidence that ransom payments were supporting 
Somalia's civil war or terrorist activity, the industry and 
military would be forced to change the way they dealt with 
piracy, said Wong.  To date, however, available evidence did 
not suggest such linkages. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
Arms on Ships Do Not Ensure Safety of Crews 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) Attendees were unified in their strong opposition 
to arming merchant ships to combat piracy.  Captain Li 
Chi-wai, Hong Kong Seamen's Union Chairman, stated seafarers 
were not soldiers and lacked weapons training.  Instead, Li 
hoped international navies would form a United Nations force 
to establish safe trade corridors while simultaneously 
pursuing and disabling pirate "mother" ships active in the 
region.  Hong Kong's Marine Department Director Roger Tupper 
opposed the use of armed private security guards on ships but 
welcomed military escorts with clear training on rules of 
engagement.  However, their employment should only be 
temporary while the international community dealt with the 
current limitations of reduced naval patrolling assets, 
ineffective regional law enforcement and judicial courts, and 
Somalia's internal conflict.  Father Stephen Miller, Managing 
Director for Anglican Church-rooted Mission to Seafarers at 
the Dubai International Seafarers Centre, argued arming 
merchant crews would not provide a solution to the piracy 
problem nor would it make crews any safer.  Rather, such 
measures would lead to a more violent escalation of the 
problem.  Father Miller encouraged ship owners and managers 
to invest in BMP and train crews at evasive techniques. 
MARUT