This year, for the first time ever, 🇨🇳registered 26 Chinese People's Armed Police Force Coast Guard vessels to operate in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission Convention Area.
It is also the area of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd island chains. My latest @Diplomat_APAC 🧵 China’s Coast Guard, a grey-zone maritime security force, will soon legally be allowed to board any foreign fishing vessels on the high seas in the 1rst, 2nd and 3rd island chains.

The @CSIS Frozen Frontiers report uses satellite imagery to raise media interest in China's Arctic/Antarctic agenda. Few of the facts are new, ie it's old news about China's Antarctic base on Inexpressible Island being in the flight path of US McMurdo Base features.csis.org/hiddenreach/ch… @CSIS Different materials will reach different audiences. But it is concerning to see basic facts wrong. The PRC was not excluded from joining the Antartic Treaty in 1981. The agreement on environmental protection in Antarctica won't be automatically renegotiated in 2048.

Xi Jinping is the most powerful CCP leader in the past 40 years. The fact that he has steadily been able to place his people at the top of all China's core intelligence agencies, as well as over the propaganda & thought work xitong is a sign of his political strength. However, 1/ ...it is not a guarantee of absolute control of the security agencies, who have been seeded from top to bottom by the allies of Xi’s rivals in the CCP, & in any case, by design, operate by their own rules. 2/