BEIJING - China plans to boost patrols in the South China Sea to deal with the growing threat of illegal fishing and sharpening territorial disputes, a Chinese official was quoted as saying by state media Thursday. The report in the China Daily newspaper follows China's dispatch last week of a converted naval vessel to patrol fishing grounds surrounding the disputed Paracel Islands, about 400 miles (640 kilometers) south of Hong Kong. Fisheries department director Wu Zhuang was quoted as saying that additional patrols were needed to handle new "challenges and complications" in...
photo: WN / Renzelle Mae Abasolo
