Mongolian incidents highlight flag flaws

Mongolian-flag ships keep getting in trouble off the Chinese coast and, following a fatal incident, local media want to know how they got there in the first place.

The latest incident involved a 37-year-old general cargoship that went down off Wenzhou last week. Nine of 11 crew members from the 1,600-dwt Jian Hong No 1 (built 1980) were never found.

Despite the nationality of the Imabari-built vessel’s registration, the mainland Chinese and Taiwan coastguards and navies responded with a multi-ship rescue effort.

Chinese media reported last Monday that the 7,000-displacement tonne naval destroyer Jinan (built 2014) of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s East China Sea fleet had rescued two seafarers from the distressed Jian Hong No 1. The ship was bound for South Korea with a cargo of refined sugar from Taiwan.

The Jian Hong No 1 is variously attributed to Zhang Hong Shipping or Rui Bang Shipping, both of which are based in Taiwan.

The ship sailed for the first 13 years of its life as the Shinho Maru.

Some among the ship’s 11-strong crew were from what Chinese media reports describe as “Chinese Taiwan” but one of the two rescued seafarers was Indonesian.

As recently as October, Chinese media had reported that the Mongolian-flag, 880-dwt general cargoship Lian He 36 (built 2013) had beached during a typhoon. The vessel, controlled by a mainland company, subsequently caught fire.

The Sina.com news website took the opportunity to acquaint the general reader about the workings of the flag of convenience system, under which the world’s merchant fleet is overwhelmingly registered under the flags of nations with a negligible number of shipowners among their own citizens.

They explained that even Mongolia, whose navy consists of seven crewmen on one tug on a lake, has found it worthwhile to flag ships such as the Jian Hong No 1.