China

Along the northwestern Philippine coast, poor children with claw hammers clamber aboard an abandoned fishing vessel to pry loose and steal rusty nails from its deck. It's become a familiar sight in villages where some fishermen have been forced to give up their livelihoods since China took control of their fishing haven last year.Fishermen say Chinese maritime surveillance ships have shooed them from the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea and roped off the entrance to the vast lagoon that had been their fishing paradise for decades. Now, they say, they can't even count on the Chinese to give them shelter there from a potentially deadly storm.Some have paddled back in canoes to sneak into the lagoon — teeming with pricey yellowfin and skipjack tuna, red grouper, blue marlin and lobster — while their mother boats hide from a distance.But other Filipino fishermen in the northwestern towns of Masinloc and Infanta have sold their boats, or simply abandoned them on the coast, and turne...

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