The most common current form of piracy in the Asia-Pacific region--piracy against modern shipping--is characterized by “hit-rob-run” short-term seizure of ships and acts of robbery (according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the average length of an incident is thirty minutes, and the average theft between US $5000 and US $15,000).

　In the Southeast Asia area (Straits of Malacca and Singapore), most attacks are at night, against all types of commercial ships (container and bulk carriers, tankers), by pirates in small fast boats that approach from astern and board the ship with grappling hooks or ropes, and then threaten the crew on the bridge and in their cabins. They usually rob money from the ship's safe and take electrical goods. In contrast, IMB reports indicate that overt approaches and the firing of weapons to stop ships are more common in the other piracy areas.

　

　　In any case, piracy poses real dangers--not only to the lives of crew, but also to other ships in heavily traveled areas (over 200 ships, half of them oil tankers, enter the Straits of Malacca and Singapore each day). As earlier IMB statistics on piracy indicate, even back in 1992 and 1993, over two-thirds of the world's piracy incidents occurred in the Asia-Pacific region. Overall, 71 of 87 global pirate attacks in 1994 took place in the Asia-Pacific region.

　

　　It is significant to compare the trends of the locations and regional geographic distribution of piracy attacks in the 1990 - 1994 period. After a surge in 1990-1992, new cooperative initiatives (to be discussed below) in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore area reduced piracy incidents significantly in that area. But in the 1992 to early 1994 period, there was a significant shift of the focus of piracy to the Hong Kong-Luzon-Hainan Island (HLH) area and the South China and East China Seas. Piracy in these areas was on a more overt, quasi-military scale, with the attackers frequently being Chinese, in uniform, and in patrol boats, firing shots in many cases. Beijing eventually claimed that rogue elements of the Chinese Customs and Public Security Bureaus (not military units) were responsible.⁵ (This may have reflected both the pressure of the PRC “antismuggling” initiative, and the fact that local officials could keep half of the “contraband” seized.) Other nations in Asia were concerned that these “piracy” incidents might be a deliberate PRC exercise of extra-territorial sovereignty, and (particularly in the South China Sea and East China Sea Senkaku Island area) an unofficial exertion of expansive PRC maritime claims. If so, the PRC has either rethought this tactic or gotten better control of local “rogue” officials. International pressure clearly played a role in this. After having seen 17 of the 20 piracy incidents in the East China Sea directed against Russian ships in late 1992 and early 1993, Russia deployed naval ships to the area in mid-1993 with orders to attack any threats to shipping--whereupon such attacks promptly ceased. Japan, another focus of the 78 cases in 1991 - 1993 where foreign vessels were boarded or shot at by Chinese, proposed to the PRC Foreign Minister during his February 1993 visit to Tokyo that officials from the two countries' coast guard authorities meet to discuss East China Sea shipping problems. The PRC agreed to an “informal” June 1993 meeting, which arranged the establishment of a hotline to the Japanese Maritime Safety Agency--and incidents over the next year were reduced to only one.⁶ Elsewhere, an embarrassing Chinese attempt in May 1994 to seize a vessel inside Hong Kong's territorial waters even led to a PRC apology and promise to avoid such incidents in the future. However, there were still numerous incidents in 1994 in the Hong Kong-Luzon-Hainan (HLH) region, although half the 1993 number--and a significant increase (double 1993) in piracy incidents in Indonesian waters in 1994.

　

　　The 1996 IMB Piracy Reporting Center Annual Report on Piracy indicated a worsening trend globally and in the Asia-Pacific region, with a global total of 175 piracy incidents in 1995, compared to 90 in 1994.⁷ There were significant increases in reported attacks in Indonesian waters (from 25 in 1994, to 34 in 1995, to 53 in 1996), and in attacks in the China/Hong Kong/Macau/Taiwan area (from 5 in 1994 to 28 in 1995). Most of the Indonesian attacks were inport, leading some shipowners associations in Asia to claim that these attacks should not be classified by the Piracy Reporting Center as piracy -- but the Piracy Reporting Center has argued that the violent impact on victims is the same in port or at sea.

　

　　The 1999 report of the IMB Piracy Reporting Center found that two-thirds of all the world's reported cases of piracy in 1999 occurred in the Asia-Pacific, with Southeast Asia (especially waters near Indonesia) accounting for a majority of piracy attacks. The 300 reported pirate attacks worldwide in 1999 were triple the 1991 figure. The number of attacks in Indonesia in 1999 was almost double that in 1998, no doubt reflecting the recent economic crisis and domestic unrest in that country.⁸ Most of these “piracy” acts occur in ports or anchorages (hence the term “sea robbery,” since, as noted above, piracy defined in international law is outside territorial waters, although the IMB's Piracy Reporting Center and others include “sea robbery” in these figures and in their own practical definition of piracy.).

　

　　The most recent year 2000 Annual Report of the IMB's Piracy Reporting Center highlighted the continuing worsening trends in piracy in the Asia-Pacific region.⁹ Worldwide reported piracy incidents reached an all time high of 469, a 56 percent increase over 1999 and a 450 percent increase since 1991. Most attacks still occurred on ships at anchor, but there was an increase in the violence of many attacks, with 40 killed (all in Philippine waters) and 21 crew missing (in the East China Sea area). As indicated in Figure 1, Indonesia led the world in piracy attacks, accounting for 119 attacks, over a quarter of the world total. Of particular concern was the dramatic resurgence of attacks on ships underway in the Malacca Strait, an area which had been relatively safe since 1993 and which experienced only two attacks in 1999. In 2000, there were 75 piracy incidents in this area--second only to Indonesia, although there was a slight drop in piracy acts in the Singapore Straits. In summary, the increasing piracy in 2000, most notably in Indonesia and the Malacca Strait, reflects both the economic and political instability ashore in Indonesia and a tendency to increased violence.