More patrol vessels may be sent

China may convert more retired navy ships into patrol vessels and send them to the South China Sea to strengthen the fishery supervision, an official told China Daily yesterday.

The administration has been facing new "challenges and complications" in supervising China's 3-million-sq-km exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea, Wu Zhuang, director of the Administration of Fishery and Fishing Harbor Supervision of the South China Sea, said.

"Faced with a growing amount of illegal fishing and other countries' unfounded territorial claims of islands in China's EEZ, it has become necessary to step up the fishery administration's patrols to protect China's rights and interests," Wu said.