On a balmy January night, an Argentine coast guard ship\u2019s radio picked up garbled Mandarin broadcast from nearby boats.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They were among some 200 Chinese fishing vessels that spend months at a time each year near the South American country\u2019s waters, hunting primarily for catch to feed the world\u2019s largest squid market.<\/p>\n
Seen from space <\/p>\n
NASA was able to capture the fleet on Jan. 17, 2026 via its \u2018Black Marble\u2019 service which provides cloud-free, high resolution images of the earth at night.<\/p>\n
Dark map of southern South America showing Argentina and Chile. A hatched zone in the South Atlantic marks the squid, Illex argentinus, distribution, with bright clusters showing a squid fishing fleet near EEZ borders and the Falkland Islands.<\/p>\n
The size of the flotilla has increased by nearly 50% over the last decade. In that time, Buenos Aires has bulked up its surveillance to ensure the fleet doesn\u2019t fish in the exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, where Argentina controls all maritime resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But fears of overfishing just outside the country\u2019s waters remain, as do suspicions of intelligence gathering that were also shared by Washington, according to interviews with four Argentine and four U.S. former and current officials. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Washington\u2019s efforts to spotlight global overfishing by Chinese-flagged vessels date back to the late 2010s, as the first Donald Trump administration began to emphasize U.S. strategic rivalry with Beijing. Trump, who last year extended a $20 billion economic lifeline to Argentine leader Javier Milei\u2019s government, has since declared U.S. \u201cdominance\u201d<\/a> over the Western Hemisphere to be a key objective of his administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n That has set Washington at odds with China, which has over the last 20 years invested heavily in Latin America, including Argentina. Beijing has developed Venezuela\u2019s oil sector, built Brazilian and Peruvian port facilities and set up a military-run space-observation station in Argentina that has drawn U.S. scrutiny.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n China\u2019s Foreign Ministry said in a statement in response to Reuters\u2019 questions that the suspicions of intelligence gathering around the fishing fleet were \u201cpure speculation, lacking any factual basis.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cChina is a responsible fishing nation, strictly enforcing the regulation of its distant-water fishing activities and engaging in mutually beneficial fisheries cooperation with relevant countries in accordance with international law,\u201d the ministry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The U.S. has helped Argentina better patrol its waters to protect against illegal fishing, including approving its purchase of U.S.-origin P-3C Orion maritime surveillance aircraft.<\/p>\n Ludmila Lugo, member of the Argentine coast guard, looks through binoculars at squid jigger vessels aboard the patrol ship Azopardo (GC-25), outside Argentina’s exclusive economic zone in the South Atlantic Ocean on January 18, 2026. REUTERS\/Agustin Marcarian.<\/p>\n Argentina has had suspicions that some Chinese fishing boats were equipped with antennas that are inconsistent with fishing activities, said Marcelo Rozas Garay, who served as vice minister of defense in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe think what they were looking for in reality was information or intercepting communication,\u201d he said, without providing details about the antennas. \u00a0<\/p>\n Buenos Aires and Washington have also discussed Chinese vessels that Argentina observed moving in ways which indicate that they could be mapping the continental shelf for undersea resources, said Juan Battaleme, the defense secretary for international affairs under Milei until December 2025. \u00a0<\/p>\n Under international law, only Argentina can explore and exploit resources on its shelf.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Washington was concerned that China is using its fleet to build a regional presence and test Argentina\u2019s ability to control its waters in the South Atlantic, which offers access to Antarctica and other key water passages, said one of the former U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.\u00a0<\/p>\n The people interviewed for this story did not provide evidence for their suspicions.<\/p>\n