By Al-Fassel | 2024-02-09

As US and multinational forces work hard to protect the free flow of commerce from the Houthis' attacks, China's presence is surging in the Red Sea, bolstered by the promised immunity it has been granted by the Iran-backed group.

The number of container ships transiting through the Red Sea has dropped as the Houthis continue to target commercial vessels -- with the exception of those operated by China and Russia.

As major shipping companies reroute their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, China and Russia have been cashing in on their special relationship with the terrorist group, which in mid-January promised their ships safe passage.

As southbound transit stalls, tankers carrying clean petroleum products still going through are almost all Russian-origin, oil analytics firm Vortexa said in a January 30 report.

And amid the chaos, a mysterious new Chinese carrier has emerged promising "ultimate care for crew, cargo and vessel with high-security level" in the Red Sea, Lloyd's List Intelligence reported January 23.

The new shipping company, Sea Legend Shipping, is incorporated in Singapore but controlled by China. The services it promises to provide include escorts by the Chinese navy and private armed guards on board.

The firm obtained approval in February 2023 from China's Ministry of Transport to operate international container liner services at Chinese ports, according to a certificate on the company's website.

Sea Legend owns and operates a fleet of 10 vessels with the total capacity to carry 32,750 standard shipping containers.

At that scale, the company would rank 46th among the top 100 carriers globally listed by Alphaliner, but it is mysteriously absent from the well-respected and frequently updated list.

This indicates the firm's rapid expansion is recent, according to Lloyd's List.

Sea Legend is connected to another relatively new Chinese carrier, Transfar Shipping.

Sea Legend's shareholder is Sea World Legend Holdings Ltd., which shares an identical address with Transfar's shareholder, Transfar Marine Holdings Ltd., according to Singapore's Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority.

A senior executive at Transfar confirmed to Lloyd’s List that it operates and manages Sea Legend, without providing other details.

By setting up a separate brand, Transfar could be trying to mitigate risk in case its vessels are hit in the Red Sea, a container shipping source told Lloyd's List.

But that seems unlikely.

Chinese, Russian ships 'not threatened'

In an interview published by Russian outlet Izvestia on January 19, senior Houthi official Mohammed al-Bukhaiti insisted the waters around Yemen were safe so long as vessels were not linked to certain countries.

"As for all other countries, including Russia and China, their shipping in the region is not threatened," he said.

While the Houthis insist their attacks target only vessels of certain nationalities, the United States has noted that the ships have ties to dozens of countries.

Beijing has refrained from officially condemning the Houthi attacks over the past three months, and China's military has refrained from joining the US-led multinational task force to protect maritime navigation in the region.

During a meeting in Bangkok January 27 with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan "raised the importance of Beijing using [its] leverage with Iran to call for an end, and bring an end" to the attacks.

"[The] Chinese are telling us directly that they are raising it with Iran. But ... I think we're looking to actually [see] facts on the ground, and those attacks seem to be continuing," a White House official said on condition of anonymity.

China-Russia trade increasing

Seventeen of the 27 Chinese-related ships passing through the Red Sea since mid-December involved port calls in Russia.

Container trade with Russia does not necessarily violate Western sanctions, but it does show a level of collusion between Beijing and Moscow, whose economy depends heavily on trade through the Suez Canal.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov on January 25 received a Houthi delegation to discuss tensions in the Red Sea.

But the meeting and ensuing statement did not criticize or implicate the Houthis for their acts of aggression. Rather, Russia made it clear it was taking the side of the aggressors, its Iran-linked allies.

Meanwhile, Iran and its key allies, China and Russia, have continued to capitalize on their relationship with the Houthis to send ships through the Red Sea.

The Iranian cargo ship Golsan on Tuesday (February 6) passed through Bab al-Mandeb at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, Asharq al-Awsat reported.

The Chinese cargo ship Linhai 1 also traveled through the strait with armed guards onboard, the media outlet said.