The territorial tensions that are inflaming relations between China and its neighbours are due in part to a collapse in local fish stocks, which is pushing the Chinese fishing fleet into conflict with nearby states.

Friction between China and Japan in the East China Sea tends to flare shortly after China’s annual summer fishing ban — imposed to protect domestic fisheries — is lifted at the start of August. Similarly, diplomatic and military jostling in the South China Sea plays out against a backdrop of a steady stream of Chinese fishing boats captured in the waters of Indonesia and the Philippines, in what the Chinese foreign ministry has called China’s “traditional fishing grounds”.