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Chinese Cargo Ship & Crew Held Hostage By Somali Pirates

by on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 79 comments

somali-pirates-01

A Chinese cargo ship (“德新海 De Xin Hai”) with twenty-five Chinese seamen was seized by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean about 700 miles east of the Somali coastline. Headlines in Chinese news websites except Xinhuanet are all about this incident (Sina, NetEase, Mop, Huanqiu, Sohu, Tom, QQ. )

csomali-pirates

From Xinhua:

QINGDAO, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) — A Chinese company confirmed Tuesday that 25 Chinese crewmembers were being held hostage by pirates in the Indian Ocean.

The bulk carrier De Xin Hai and its 25 crew were hijacked in the Indian Ocean around noon local time Monday.

“We received a report from the cargo ship at 3:50 p.m. (Beijing Time) Monday, saying that armed pirates were aboard the ship, and then we lost touch,” a spokesman for the vessel’s owner, Qingdao Ocean Shipping Co., Ltd., told Xinhua Tuesday.

The company, based in eastern Shandong Province, immediately reported the incident to the China Maritime Search and Rescue Center, he said.

“All of the 25 crew were employed by our company, and we have notified their relatives about the incident,” he said.

Twenty-two of the crew were from Shandong and the other three were from Liaoning, Hebei and Jiangsu provinces.

“We are closely working with the authorities to release the ship and crew,” he said.

de-xin-hai-02

The 德新海 "De Xin Hai" Chinese cargo ship.

Crew on a Chinese cargo ship defeated pirates last year with Molotov cocktails and a water cannon but this time people on “De Xin Hai” were not so lucky. Fortunately, the crew hasn’t been hurt so far.

From Xinhua:

LONDON, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) — Spokesman of the European Union (EU)naval force John Harbour confirmed on Monday that 25 Chinese people were taken hostages by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean and they seem to be fine.

Harbour said “the total number held hostages along Somali coast is 146. I can confirm on board the carrier, there are 25 Chinese personnel.”

He said: “I know that the UK Maritime Trade Office has spoken to the owner of the ship, to confirm the figure and they are trying to get in touch with the pirates, at the moment to see what their next intentions are. As far as I am aware the ship is heading to the northwest, which would be towards the Somali coast.”

Harbour said they send a helicopter to investigate the event. It has detected the bulk carrier and has taken photographs that “there were a number of other people seeing on the dock, and these were clearly crew and they seem to be fine.”

A bulk carrier “De Xin Hai” from China was hijacked in the Indian Ocean around noon local time, the EU anti-piracy military organization EU NAVFOR said in a statement on Monday.

EU NAVFOE said in a statement that the ship was hijacked 550 nautical miles North East of the Seychelles and 700 nautical miles off the East coast of Somalia.

“On indication of an attack an EU NAVFOR Maritime Patrol Aircraft, operating from the Seychelles was launched to investigate the incident,” the statement said.

The aircraft located the ship and has reported that there are four pirates visible and 2 small pirate craft being towed by the ship.

The statement also said that the bulk carrier was not registered with the Maritime Security Center Horn of Africa.

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There were three PLA naval ships patrolling in the region and the nearest one was 1080 nautical miles away from the hijacked Chinese ship. The position of the ship has been identified and Chinese government vows to save the crew. However, details on how the crew will be rescued haven’t been disclosed, in order to protect their safety. English news can be found on Google News.

More information from Chinese news:

  • Time and position that the cargo ship sent back the last message: October 19th, 16:35 Beijing Time (or 8:35 GMT), 60°4’49”E and 1°49’3.9”S
  • The ship left South Africa and was heading to India.
  • Length of the ship: 225 meters
  • Cargo: coal

Following are translated comments from Chinese websites. There is an insane amount of comments and new ones are coming in every second.

Comments from Sina (7600+ comments so far):

Mobile user from Guangdong:

[The rescue operation must be] more cautious! Wish these compatriots come back home safe!

Mobile user from Guangdong:

It’s time to put [the PLA Navy] to test.

Mobile user from Zhejiang:

Drop three thousand airborne chengguan to Somali and everything will be immediately be settled.

Miduch from Kunming, Yunnan:

Negotiating with terrorist forces is a crime. We should crush them mercilessly and take no compromise even if there are casualties.

Dengwenlq from Guangxi:

[We should] make clear announcement: if they dare to harm Chinese people, we swear to eliminate all Somalian pirates.

Liwei7611 from Wuhan, Hubei:

I suggest sweeping Somali (and take pirates as athletes). Hope in the next National Olympics in 2013 there will be announcement like this:  “the team that’s entering the stadium is Somalian delegation. This is their first time to attend the National Olympics and they have good potential in winning gold medals in boating, swimming and shooting … “

Anonymous mobile user:

As the name says, People’s Liberation Army, [we should] go liberate that country!

修我戈矛偕子同仇  from Zhengzhou, Henan:

If I was kidnapped, I’d like to die with these bastards [pirates]. Our country must not compromise.

“Lover’s valley” from Wenshan County, Yunnan:

Let the war start! I will donate one month’s salary.

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Comments from NetEase (almost 8000+ comments at this time):

Sunsky1998 from Shanghai:

This is outrageous! We must find a way to destroy their land bases in order to eliminate future attacks. If we don’t retaliate they will go from bad to worse.

From Zhejiang, Hangzhou:

This is exactly why we need aircraft carriers …

From Suzhou, Jiangsu:

When the country is in trouble, it’s everyone’s responsibility to save it.

When the countrymen are in trouble, it’s the country’s responsibility to save them.

[I have] one word to say, rescue [them]!

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79 Comments

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  1. tk 4 lyfe
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 6:05 pm

    china should bribe them pirates with pounds of low grade yunnan weed. the somalians will happily oblige

    Reply
  2. schlepping in szx
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 6:54 pm

    Good excuse for expansion of Chinese navy. What did Pentagon call it, ‘chain or pearls’, or sth?

    Reply
  3. file124528
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    It only took two U.S. Navy Seal Snipers shooting in the dark from the stern of a ship going up and down in the sea to free the single American.

    Admittedly the situation for the Chinese is different.

    What do you say the Somali pirates end up with a PLA Navy destroyer by the end of the fracas.

    Reply
  4. PUSAN PLAYA
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 7:26 pm

    [moderated: troll]

    Reply
  5. Somethin Somethin
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 7:26 pm

    Yeah too bad the only thing they’d be able to do is torpedo that sucker. China doesn’t have a surface ship above cruiser. Probably cheaper to pay those somalians a weekly “don’t hijack my boat” fee. They can use that guys one month salary, we’ll all take turns.

    Reply
  6. LongTian
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    What the pirates didn’t plan for:
    1. The Chinese Politburo cares more about national face than human lives.
    2. The Chinese have invested a lot of face, making anti-piracy operations the core mission of their new navy.
    3. I won’t say the color one, but you know you already thought of it.
    4. China has a lot to prove in Africa, since it has invested a lot there with weapons trade and raw materials purchasing/sourcing. China can’t afford to allow Africans to forget that China is powerful.

    Bye bye, pirates. Bye bye ship. Bye bye, crew.

    If China saves the crew, all will celebrate and China will gain much face, but we all know that China is sending special ops to the area right now with orders to shoot first at anything even close to the boat.

    Reply
    • Jean
      Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 2:48 am

      no…if the crews are executed then the Politburo will loose face and Chinese people will ask them for explanations and not only Chinese people, but the world, and even the media will mock China. They gotta be careful on this one.

      Reply
    • Banjopete
      Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 8:46 am

      Suspect they will just pay the ransom. It is a different situation than what the US had to deal with a while back as the pirates have many hostages and there is no way China can storm the boat without at least some of the hostages dying.

      Reply
  7. LongTian
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 7:55 pm

    On another note, the Dutch East Indies Trading Company used to have one of the largest naval forces in the world. They were only trading ships, but were armed to the teeth in order to fight off pirates. Looks like it’s true then, times change, but things stay the same. We need to rearm cargo ships that travel through dangerous areas. If I were on a ship going through the Indian Ocean, I’d at least petition the captain and company to allow me to bring a personal firearm onboard.

    Reply
  8. Johnston
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 8:20 pm

    Considering the way China has joined the West in the raping of Africa, I’m not sure I can see this as such a bad thing.

    Reply
    • gth793y
      Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 12:44 am

      One man’s terrorist is another’s liberator.

      Unfortunately, these incidents are not politically motivated, but you’re right, if the neo-colonizers didn’t screw them up so bad. piracy would not be such a big problem.

      Reply
      • Aaron
        Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 3:06 am

        If you believe in universal truths then that statement is false.

        Besides do you honestly believe that if nobody touched them they would be fine? They have no economy because of a vast array of problems not just “neo-colonizers”.

        And I would challenge you to name one “western” country that benefits from “exploiting” Africa.

        Reply
        • gth793y
          Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 7:34 am

          Thats a silly challenge, my man.

          Military industrial complex is not a new problem, Eisenhower warned the world at his last presidential address.

          “Throughout the Cold War (1950-1989), the U.S. sold over $1.5 billion worth of weaponry to Africa. Many of the top U.S. arms clients Liberia, Somalia, the Sudan, and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DRC) have turned out to be the top basket cases of the 1990s in terms of violence, instability, and economic collapse. ”

          “While the U.S. ranks number one in global weapons exports, it falls dead last among industrialized nations in providing non-military foreign aid to the developing world. In 1997, the U.S.”

          http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/congo.htm

          Both the West and the East are exploiting the shit out of Africa.

          For instance, in exchange for arms, China has exclusive infrastructure contracts in parts of Sudan, exclusive mining rights.And needless to name the list of European and American owned natural resources companies who have complete control of supplies in many African nations.

          Its pretty absurd to deny these facts.

          Reply
          • Zhang Fei
            Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 8:35 am

            Its pretty absurd to deny these facts.

            It depends on how “exploitation” is defined. If it’s defined as not paying African countries above market prices for their goods that they become developed countries, then exploitation has been occurring on all sides since the beginning of time. It’s also “exploitation” in a trivial sense – “exploitation” becomes synonymous with “trade”, and the “exploitation” is mutual. We buy things from them, and they buy things from us.

            Also, that $1.5b* you cited over 40 years amounts to less than $40m a year. But the key point is that guns don’t kill people – people kill people. During the Cultural Revolution, few guns were in evidence, but hundreds of thousands were killed with rudimentary weapons, pushed out of windows or simply starved to death. During the Boxer Rebellion, 40,000 Chinese Christians were hacked to pieces using whatever edged weapons they had on hand. During Rwanda’s Civil War, 800,000 Tutsis were massacred using little more than machetes, gasoline bombs and matches.

            African countries have the right to buy weaponry from whatever countries they choose. They have territorial disputes with their neighbors, just like countries on every other continent. They also have periodic rebellions and secession movements. Every country has the right to self-defense and internal security.

            * I suspect this number only include sub-Saharan Africa. The US gives (i.e. no repayment necessary) $1.3b in military aid every year to Egypt as part of the Camp David Accords.

          • gth793y
            Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 8:54 am

            Only recognized sovereign and stable states can use force legitimately, selling weapons to rogue states and organizations who will clearly not be responsible with arms in exchange for monetary gain is exploitation.

            Further, by aiding to different factions, the arms exporters can ensure the conflict goes on and the demand for their weapons will sustain.

          • Zhang Fei
            Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 9:20 am

            Only recognized sovereign and stable states can use force legitimately, selling weapons to rogue states and organizations who will clearly not be responsible with arms in exchange for monetary gain is exploitation.

            Further, by aiding to different factions, the arms exporters can ensure the conflict goes on and the demand for their weapons will sustain.

            The US generally doesn’t sell to rogue states and irresponsible parties. And the definition of rogue state and irresponsible party depends on who you’re talking to. As to aiding different factions, that’s a pretty standard thing – every country has the right to back the faction most conducive to its interests. In this manner, China backed communist movements throughout Africa and East Asia with weaponry and training, winning victories in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and Zimbabwe while losing in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Burma.

          • gth793y
            Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 8:34 pm

            “every country has the right to back the faction most conducive to its interests”

            and where does this “right” to meddle with foreign affairs come from? If we’re are sticking to the Westphalia standards, then they certainly do not have that right. They can, but its not their right.

            Well then, seems like you’re a patron of the Realism school in International relations.

            by the teachings of realism, there is nothing ethical or unethical, merely interests just as you have suggested. So why even make an half assed attempt at defend the righteousness of these decisions?

          • Zhang Fei
            Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 10:25 pm

            and where does this “right” to meddle with foreign affairs come from? If we’re are sticking to the Westphalia standards, then they certainly do not have that right. They can, but its not their right.

            It comes from the fact that their foreign policy affects your country. This is why China has intervened repeatedly in succession struggles involving kingdoms and tribes as far as Java for several thousand years – having the wrong chieftain in power can set off a very negative chain of events. I think you have an overly expansive view of what the Treaties of Westphalia were all about. Mainly, they ended multi-decade wars, established new boundaries and set up the principle of freedom of religion in a limited form. People have piled on all kinds of baggage, but the bottom line is that the Treaty was merely a way to postpone territorial disputes for a few more decades.

          • gth793y
            Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 11:49 pm

            Westphalia also established each national government recognizes others as the proper sovereign of their nations.

            Again, I would like to ask you,as someone who believes interests above most orders, why do you attempt to justify the “right” of something? the strong do what they will, the weak do what they must, right? in this case, might is right. Then whats the point of defend the decisions as ethical.

        • gth793y
          Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 8:01 am

          My girlfriend also points out that “Universal Truths” is contradictory. If its the universal one, then how many “truths” are out there.

          Reply
          • uh huh
            Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 11:12 am

            two things can be true at the same time, girlfriend.

          • schlepping in szx
            Friday, October 23, 2009 at 12:48 am

            Aaron stated very clearly:

            if you believe in universal truths then that statement is false.

            gareth793, you could have simply replied, “I do not hold that belief. Since, as you say, universal truths depend upon belief states, they are therefore not universal. My original statment therefore holds as true, quantifying in.”

  9. stephen
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 8:24 pm

    let’s just wait and see….

    Reply
  10. JMoneyMonkey
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 8:57 pm

    Should be interesting what China does cause it is always the loudest when it comes to issues of sovereignty. Lets see what kind of precedence they set. If they violate the sovereignty of Somalia that means we will see more to come.

    If you look at old Chinese Communism doctrine there is a lot of talk about non-aggression.

    Reply
    • Jean
      Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 12:38 pm

      Care to explain the “lets see what kind of precedence they set?” As far as I know, the leader of Somalia gave countries around the world under the UN to use force if necessary.

      Regarding the old Chinese communism doctrine of non-aggression, they are referring to not use force unless someone use force towards China first. Please correct me if I wrong.

      Reply
  11. Stan
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 10:15 pm

    China’s full of pirates, pot kettle!!

    Reply
    • VeerLeft
      Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 5:42 pm

      Some are actually Police in places like Jiangxi province who basically hold trucks cargo for ransom. The drivers are from the shithole towns and they tip officials as to which loads belong to private companies, or anyone not of power and guanxi. Then they TAX them.

      Reply
  12. yuan shikai
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 11:16 pm

    Although the original story on this was interesting, (I mean who doesn’t like hearing about pirates?) the Chinese comments are predictable and lame. Of those 8000+ comments from Netease and 7600+ from Sina did any actually bring up alternate views on this incident?

    I would suggest to you Fauna and chinaSMACK editors, perhaps you should try and bring more intelligent comments to the forefront so that netizens don’t look like a giant band of epsilon semi morons.

    Reply
    • Python
      Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 12:17 am

      The focus of this article is the news itself not comments. If you are interested in more intelligent views, check out “expert’s opinions” in news links on the top. Those are long and academic research on Somali’s piracy history but I don’t have time to translate them. Thousands of comments must have some jewelry buried there somewhere but it’s hard to dig them out since every time I finish in reading the 1st page, comments have already been pushed to second even third page.

      Reply
    • B. Prichard
      Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 3:37 pm

      I don’t know. I always enjoy a good chengguan joke.

      Reply
  13. jj
    Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    u know these pirates are going to get arrested then taken back to china & be executed…by a firing squad….the cost of each bullet will be sent to their moms…

    Reply
  14. Aaron
    Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 2:59 am

    I wonder what the ship was hauling?

    Also assaulting that ship would be difficult. You would have to attack under cover of night and do it with a small force. Otherwise a hostage would probably get hurt. I hope nobody pusses out and gives them a million dollars or whatever.

    We American’s were lucky our guy got into a dingy and was bobbing around in the ocean for a few days. That let our bad ass SEAL’s snipe three of the four terrorists.

    Reply
  15. FYIADragoon
    Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 6:45 am

    Specs Ops? from China? lol this should be funny. Just because Russia inspires your military, doesn’t mean you have a Spetsnaz level group. I have no doubt they’re going to militarily resolve this situation, but I’m doubting that you’re going to see all 25 Chinese seamen come back. More than likely they’re probably going to cause the deaths of some captives with their “operation,” and regardless of whether its from friendly fire or the desperation of the pirates, its going to be blamed on the pirates.

    Reply
  16. Zhang Fei
    Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 8:51 am

    The cheapest and safest way is to pay the ransom. Nobody’s going to invade Somalia. The long term fix is to build a fort manned by foreign forces in place of the pirate base. But that’s too expensive and would invite charges of imperialism, which would bring flak for Chinese investments in Africa.

    A cheap way to do this kind of thing is attack their base, hang all the suspects, demolish the entire town and burn everyone’s possessions. In the currently politically-correct era, none of that is feasible. The climate of identity politics in Africa means that China doing these things would intensify local opposition to Chinese projects throughout Africa.

    The bottom line? The cheapest and least bad of all possible outcomes is to pay the hijackers. Everything else costs too much.

    Reply
    • file124528
      Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 11:05 am

      “A cheap way to do this kind of thing is attack their base, hang all the suspects, demolish the entire town and burn everyone’s possessions.”

      Isn’t that what the PLA does to the Tibetans and the Uigurs?

      Reply
      • FYIADragoon
        Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 11:53 am

        And it ravaged their political relations with the outside world for the past few years. Its still hurting them. Doing it to Africa would literally annihilate their chances of continued business in Africa. The West would step in, regardless of actually caring about humanitarian issues or not.

        Reply
      • Zhang Fei
        Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 12:00 pm

        Isn’t that what the PLA does to the Tibetans and the Uigurs?

        Over there, the PLA doesn’t destroy any property unless absolutely necessary. In Somalia, the nature of punitive expeditions is that they won’t be sticking around, so they need to keep the locals busy reconstructing and give the local community a good reason not to hit Chinese ships again.

        Reply
    • schlepping in szx
      Friday, October 23, 2009 at 12:58 am

      “build a fort” ??? what, are you 8 years old?

      take a look at a map of Somalia. the coastline is kinda long.

      Reply
  17. Tommy
    Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 9:21 am

    Everyone is assuming we will know the outcome. They will screw it all up but spin the hell out of it. Sacrifice a few PLA and they’ll have another parade.
    I’m sure whatever happens Xinhua will be told to use it to bolster national pride.

    Reply
    • Jean
      Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 12:42 pm

      So? In the west they are called “heroes”. They died by trying to bring back home their comrades and securing free trade in the Gulf of Aden. That’s the same thing the US is doing, every soldier that dies on A-tan are called heroes and bolster national pride, the only difference is that too many have fallen and the medias are tired of covering those news already. Even Hollywood does this kind of thing!

      Reply
    • schlepping in szx
      Friday, October 23, 2009 at 1:00 am

      but they’ll be called “revolutionary martyrs” here

      Reply
  18. LongTian
    Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 10:04 am

    I don’t see how China could pay the ransom in this case. It’s too public, and they’ve invested too much in anti-terror PR lately. Especially after the anniversary military parade and the huge anti-terror operation with Russia, China can’t back down here. If it was still quiet, they could pay them off, but now that it’s global headlines, they’re going to try for an extraction.

    Option 2: Pull strings among contacts in Africa, and have warlords do the negotiating behind the scenes for you. Pay off this third party, who then pays off the pirates secretly, and then they “allow” the Chinese military to succeed. That might work.

    Reply
  19. lostinsz
    Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 11:52 am

    One reason for piracy becoming a mega-business off-shore Somalia is the depletion of fish stock due massive trawling operations undertaken by many countries and notably Taiwan. Well, the locals now have a much more lucrative and highly sophiticated business with financial and middlemen links in Dubai and Mumbai plus communications equipment to die for. As for any harebrained idea about landing troops on Somalian soil…you would have to be on drugs. There will be the usual payout.

    Reply
    • Zhang Fei
      Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 12:08 pm

      As for any harebrained idea about landing troops on Somalian soil…you would have to be on drugs.

      Precisely. The financial and diplomatic costs are way too high. A ransom payment is the most practical way to settle this. I believe insurance payments should cover it. Going forward, they may want to instruct Chinese shipping to stay close to the Yemeni shore, rather than the Somali side of the waterway.

      I outlined the downsides of a land operation. What do you see as the negatives?

      Reply
      • LongTian
        Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 1:17 pm

        People who are forced into a corner don’t always choose the most logical alternative. Failure of the Chinese military to win an anti-terror situation right now would negate the entire 60th anniversary celebration, which was designed in a large part to showcase the fact that China has a large, modern military force. China has also trumpeted the fact that this force is for defense and anti-terror operations, to protect Chinese interests at home and abroad. This is the first major test. Once you invest in a military, there is constant pressure to use it, or the people wonder why they pay for it.

        Reply
        • Anon
          Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 1:37 pm

          Agreed. In fact, I’ve even seen people say “if we don’t use them this time, we might as well disband the whole military for all the good it does us.” But the media seems to be pushing the message that an armed rescue just isn’t feasible (and they’re probably right), so I’m preparing to see a lot of disappointed “this wouldn’t have happened in Mao’s time,” “This government is weaker than the late Qing” “nobody dares to attack Americans, so we have to get more rich and powerful so nobody will dare to bully us Chinese” and the other standard cliches.

          Reply
      • lostinsz
        Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 2:58 pm

        Even an extraction is fraught with serious risk. The Yemenis would do the same thing (piracy) if they could get their gig together. The Somalis may look like Boyz in the Hood, but they have very smart biz people running the show as I mentioned. They probably even have sat maps of the competition/Chinese naval vessels. Basically reconstruct Somalian society, but cant see that taking place. No, let the Chinese navy test the waters to no avail. The west/French/US have no sway in this regions…why would the Chinese…and shit they are continents away. Hubris. But that is Beijing these days. Xinhua will make a meal of it either way, that assured. Thanks.

        Reply
    • LongTian
      Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 1:23 pm

      Nobody is going to land troops on Somalian soil for a police action against a few people. Anti-piracy operations are reactionary. Anything more will be viewed as an invasion and condemned. What I’m saying is that they will probably attempt an extraction.

      Reply
  20. Stu
    Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 10:28 pm

    What would General Tso do?

    Reply
  21. Bill Rich
    Friday, October 23, 2009 at 1:07 am

    The Chinese naval vessels were going to go 1,000 nautical miles in 40 hours. That’s 25 knots. And these are frigates. Good speed, and with Chinese characteristics. No wonder the cargo ship can reach port before the Chinese navy can see the ship.

    Reply
  22. 社會是和諧的
    Friday, October 23, 2009 at 1:28 am

    This is going to be a class A screw up. I really feel bad for those poor Chinese crewman.

    Reply
  23. Stu
    Friday, October 23, 2009 at 2:54 am

    Think the hijackers will order in Chinese food? I’d be wanton some myself.

    Reply
  24. Soldier
    Friday, October 23, 2009 at 5:56 pm

    There is an easy way to solve this problem:
    Drop 100 soldiers onto the ship. Bang, bang, bang… 5 minutes later, 25 soldiers take off their uniform and throw their guns into the sea. CCAV news: 75 Chinese soldiers rescued all 25 crewmembers successfully.
    This idea is inspired by the 2002 Oscar winner movie “No Man’s Land”.

    Reply
  25. realultimatepowerdotnet
    Friday, October 23, 2009 at 10:20 pm

    Ninjas > Pirates

    China just needs some ninjas to do the job.

    Reply
  26. Murci
    Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 1:32 am

    That’s a great idea. Call Japan and have them send over some ninjas so they can help China save face. Er… what?

    Reply
  27. manusan
    Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 6:43 pm

    chinese cargaison is expensiver than chinese seaman.

    look like this is crisis also for pirates.

    Reply
  28. Yin
    Monday, October 26, 2009 at 5:21 am

    “What would Zhuge Lian do?”

    I thought about that, and my conclusion is that Zhuge Liang would set up a trap for the pirates. He’d command a lone Chinese vessel full of goods to travel in Somalia waters while being shadowed by long-range subs. When the pirates attack, the subs would sink their ships. Do this a few times and the pirates will stop attacking.

    That, or get the Americans to do it and then try to take credit for their accomplishments. That would be smarter in today’s China, and Zhuge Liang is all about the smarts.

    Reply
  29. nausicaa
    Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 1:34 am

    Time for the Chinese Navy to interfere, and settle its power at an international level. Chinese Navy should show its strength and rescue its citizen, and in the same time showing its interest of being an international player.

    Reply
  30. Jay K
    Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 11:16 am

    hey can we get an update on this. just found this on the news that china will probably pay the ransom instead…

    i guess not risky enough to lose face if they botched a rescue attempt

    http://news.163.com/09/1112/01/5NSPMC9F0001124J.html

    Reply
  31. germancockroach
    Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    The Chinese Navy is useless.

    Check out the Danes kicking ass:

    http://www.janes.com/news/defence/jni/jni100210_1_n.shtml

    Reply
  32. An Angry Somali Pirate
    Saturday, December 4, 2010 at 1:33 am

    Somalis are well known for being good at kicking Chinese ass. I have kicked Chinese ass and it easy but only problem I had was when I beat the Chinese dudes, they wouldn’t fall over; they would squat!!!

    Any ways, a fair fight between Somalia and China would be one million Somalis against one billion Chinese.

    Reply
  33. Jay K
    Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 12:02 pm

    hahaha that was hilarious

    Reply
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