Cabbage tactics

Cabbage tactics is a militarily swarming and overwhelming tactic used by the People's Liberation Army Navy to seize control of islands. It is a tactic to overwhelm and seize control of an island by surrounding and wrapping the island in successive layers of Chinese naval ships, China Coast Guard ships, and fishing boats and cut off the island from outside support.[1]

Definition

Cabbage tactics were first named by Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). It is a tactic to overwhelm and seize control of an island by surrounding and wrapping the island in successive layers of Chinese naval ships, China Coast Guard ships and fishing boats and cut-off the island from outside support.[2][3] It has also been called small-stick diplomacy.[4]

According to The New York Times Magazine, Zhang Zhaozhong "described a “cabbage strategy,” which entails surrounding a contested area with so many boats — fishermen, fishing administration ships, marine surveillance ships, navy warships — that “the island is thus wrapped layer by layer like a cabbage.”"[5]

Ahmet Goncu, an associate professor at China's Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, stated: "Whenever there is a conflicted small island, the Chinese military and paramilitary forces are sent to overwhelm the islands and lay siege to the surrounding islands with military ships, fishing boats along with other kinds of paramilitary vessels." The layers of Chinese vessels block the entry or exit of any other country's navies, thus effectively isolating the island and bringing it under Chinese control.[6] The strategy also involves the People's Armed Forces Maritime Militia, which includes fishermen, serving as a first line of defense.[7] The goal of cabbage tactics is to create a layered envelopment of the target.[8]

History

Examples of Chinese cabbage tactics include the swarming of contested islands in the South China Sea, which also entailed the construction of artificial islands, and the occupation of disputed areas along the Sino-Indian border.[9] Cabbage tactics has also been used to intimidate military vessels. For instance, in 2009 the American survey ship Impeccable encountered cabbage tactics from Chinese maritime forces.[10]

In 2013, The New York Times Magazine published a multimedia feature piece exploring the South China Sea that covered the concept of cabbage tactics in depth.[4]

Usage

The usage of this tactic has been seen at:

See also

References
  1. Konishi, Weston S. (2018). "China's Maritime Challenge in the South China Sea: Options for US Responses". Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
  2. Santoro, David (16 September 2019). "Beijing's South China Sea Aggression Is a Warning to Taiwan". Foreign Policy.
  3. Pascual Jr, Federico D. (11 April 2019). "China's swarming: 'Cabbage strategy'". Philstar.
  4. Kazianis, Harry. "China's Expanding Cabbage Strategy". thediplomat.com. The Diplomat. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  5. Himmelman, Jeff (24 October 2013). "A Game of Shark and Minnow". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  6. Erdogan, Huseyin (25 March 2015). "China invokes 'cabbage tactics' in South China Sea". Anadolu Agency.
  7. Andersen, Bobby; Perry, Charles (2017). Weighing the Consequences of China's Control Over the South China Sea. Cambridge, MA: Institute of Foreign Policy Analysis. p. 22.
  8. Chan, Eric. "Escalating Clarity without Fighting: Countering Gray Zone Warfare against Taiwan (Part 2)". globaltaiwan.org. The Global Taiwan Institute. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  9. Sharma, Rakesh; Ahluwalia, V. K.; Nagal, Balraj Singh; Kapoor, Rajeev; Chakravorty, P. K.; Jash, Amrita; Semwal, Pradeep; Yadav, Kunendra Singh; Singh, Manjari (2019). CLAWS Journal: Vol. 12 No. 2 (2019): Winter 2019. New Delhi: IndraStra Global e-Journal Hosting Services. p. 87.
  10. Roy, Nalanda (2020). Navigating Uncertainty In The South China Sea Disputes: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Singapore: World Scientific. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-78634-927-9.
  11. "A Feast Of Cabbage And Salami: Part I – The Vocabulary Of Asian Maritime Disputes". Centre for International Maritime Security. 29 October 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  12. Jakhar, Pratik (15 April 2019). "Analysis: What's so fishy about China's 'maritime militia'?". BBC.
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