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[Zangi]

One can twist it as HK folks being UK citizens all along, just gotta make it official.

[kaijyuu]

Is that like negative integer overflow nuclear gandhi?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_goes_to_China

As a political metaphor, it refers to the ability of a politician with an unassailable reputation among their supporters for representing and defending their values to take actions that would draw their criticism and even opposition if taken by someone without those credentials. Although the example is that of a hardliner taking steps toward peace with a traditional enemy, and this is the most common application of the metaphor, it could also be applied to a reputedly cautious diplomat defying expectations by taking military action, or a political leader reforming aspects of the political system of which they have been strong supporters.

[martinuzz]

One can twist it as HK folks being UK citizens all along, just gotta make it official.

It's sad though for those Hongkongese youngsters who weren't born under the crown.  I think the 3 million invited to british citizenship are only those Hongkongese people that are born before 1997, and those can indeed be argued to have been UK citizens from birth.

[Reelya]

https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/china-illegal-fishing-fleet/

Here's a thing. Hundreds of North Korean fishing vessels have been running aground in Japan and South Korea, with their crews as skeletons or just missing. It was a mystery. Well, mystery solved, large numbers of Chinese fishing ships have been coming into North Korean waters for illegal fishing and they've been murdering the crews of the North Korean ships.

And the China government definitely knows about this, the number of ships involve makes up no less than a third of their entire deep sea fishing fleet.

[feelotraveller]

https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/china-illegal-fishing-fleet/

Here's a thing. Hundreds of North Korean fishing vessels have been running aground in Japan and South Korea, with their crews as skeletons or just missing. It was a mystery. Well, mystery solved, large numbers of Chinese fishing ships have been coming into North Korean waters for illegal fishing and they've been murdering the crews of the North Korean ships.

And the China government definitely knows about this, the number of ships involve makes up no less than a third of their entire deep sea fishing fleet.

Thanks for the link to an interesting and well researched story.

That said "murdering"?  Come on now, the article makes no such assertion.  That's some A-grade anti-China hysteria there. And really it's not needed, there is more than enough to criticise China over here (as elsewhere) without such absurd suggestions.  From the article:

probable explanation is that these Koreans are just poorly equipped fishermen taking desperate risks and venturing too far from shore

Autopsies on the bodies found on these boats usually indicate that the men died of starvation, hypothermia or dehydration.

Yes their livelihood is being undermined and in their desperation they are taking risks that lead to them dying but that does not add up to "murder".

[Reelya]

Yeah sorry I assumed that they didn't just spontaneously all suicide.

It's not actually as likely as you say. Remember 500 of these ships landed in Japan, without survivors. It seems like the survival rate of these ships is way lower than you'd expect. If you have 500 ships that break down due to engine failure and drift to Japan, I'd expect at least one to have a guy on it who ate the corpses of all the other guys. Humans are pretty hardy like that.

That one ship that went into the area did mention that the Chinese ship tried to ram them, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're disabling the NK ships rather than them just all randomly floating away, like 500+ times. Blown off course, engines broke down, ran out of supplies etc. Far more of them should in fact be limping into foreign ports, not all washing up as skeletons.

Chinese fishing boats are famously aggressive, often armed and known for ramming competitors or foreign patrol vessels, according to U.S. Navy officials and maritime security specialists. Chinese media often depict the country’s maritime clashes with other nearby Asian nations as an extension of ancient China's Three Kingdoms, which fought a fierce three-way battle for supremacy.

Tensions between Seoul and Beijing increased in 2016 after a Chinese vessel, illegally fishing in South Korean waters, sank a South Korean Coast Guard cutter. The cutter was in South Korean waters and was trying to stop a Chinese fishing ship that allegedly had been caught fishing illegally when it was rear-ended by another Chinese ship.

If they're willing to sink South Korean navy vessels, I think they're capable of ramming NK fishing boats.

[feelotraveller]

I think they're capable of ramming NK fishing boats.

Capable yes.  But any corresponding damage to the boats washed up would be notable.  And far easier for the Chinese just to point guns at the NK boats and say "fuck off or we shoot".  Threatened ramming would amount to the same.

At least in the vast majority of cases it looks like fishermen driven from their depleting fishing grounds overextending their reach in an attempt to get a decent catch - cannibalism is not as easy as some make out, especially when at any moment the life-saving catch my take place.  I'm guessing they're driven by their government externally (even if it comes as an internal compulsion) to bring home the goods and in the attempt to fulfil that order put themselves beyond all human endurance.

If the Chinese fishermen were carrying out direct violent action there would be some sign of it and reports from survivors, whereas apparently they nearly always just ask to be returned home to North Korea.

[Autohummer]

I would also add that the PRC and the DPRK are treaty bound allies, it makes no sense that they would murder each other.

Edit : speaking of Chinese fishing fleets, here is another thing that is going on
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-53562439

[martinuzz]

If them North Korean vessels lose their crews to starvation, what worries me most about this situation is the extinction of fish.

As a wise North Korean saying goes.  Give a man a fish, and you will feed him for a month.  Teach a man how to fish and he will starve on the ocean.

[JoshuaFH]

apparently they nearly always just ask to be returned home to North Korea.

Now this I can't believe. I woulda thought all the inhabitants of NK would want to escape.

[scriver]

Did it say anything about if the ship's had fishing equipment still on/intact? A north Korean with no nets because the Chinese stole them all might not be able to fish to feed himself in the sea.

[martinuzz]

Now that would not just be murder, but extremely cruel as well.  Outright killing them would be more humane.

[feelotraveller]

apparently they nearly always just ask to be returned home to North Korea.

Now this I can't believe. I woulda thought all the inhabitants of NK would want to escape.

Sounds like maybe you've been soaking in fake news without realising it. 

Quote from the above article (an american reporter in an american publication, at that):

Since 2013, at least 50 survivors have been rescued from these dilapidated boats, but in interviews with Japanese police, the men rarely say more than that they were stranded at sea and that they want to be returned home to North Korea.

[scriver]

I mean. They have families and shit they care for. Seeking refuge abroad means your family goes to the slave camps, iirc. Or that they're executed.

[JoshuaFH]

Yeah, I just said that without even really thinking about it. Just never mind it.