A study on new changes in Vietnam’s fishery harvest policies in the South China Sea and their impacts

After To Lam assumed the office of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam in August 2024, Vietnam has further established an interlocked policy system covering economic interests, domestic governance, maritime territorial claims, deployment of maritime security forces, and external maritime cooperation in the fisheries sector of the South China Sea. On the one hand, to lift the “yellow card” warning imposed by the European Union in 2017 over Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, Vietnam has successively revised supporting laws and regulations. It has strengthened vessel position monitoring for fishing boats over 15 meters, port entry-exit registration, catch traceability and cross-provincial law enforcement, and promoted the application of electronic fishing logbooks and electronic traceability systems. On the other hand, Vietnam has not abandoned sustaining its physical presence in disputed maritime areas through fishing activities. Instead, it continues to expand its operational space in the South China Sea by subsidizing offshore fishing operations, regularizing the development of maritime militias, upgrading the capacity of its coast guard, and carrying out maritime cooperation with neighboring countries and extraterritorial powers. As of April 2026, the European Commission completed its fifth on-site verification mission to Vietnam yet declined to revoke the yellow card, which reveals an obvious gap between Vietnam’s institutional rectification and grassroots enforcement. The above changes have rendered Vietnam’s fishing activities characterized by coexisting strengthened compliance governance and persistent maritime claim enforcement, adding complexities to China’s maritime law enforcement, fishery resource conservation, public opinion interpretation and dispute management. On the basis of sorting out relevant institutional and operational shifts, this paper analyzes the internal and external driving forces behind such changes, their impacts on the South China Sea situation and China’s maritime rights and interests, and puts forward targeted countermeasures.