Some commercial ships operating near the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Persian Gulf have started publicly identifying themselves as China-linked since the Iran war began, according to marine traffic data analyzed by The Associated Press. The pattern appears tied to risk management during a period when Iranian attacks and related attacks have raised concerns among shippers about possible targeting of vessels.
The Associated Press reported that at least eight vessels in or near the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman changed their declared destination signals to short messages such as “CHINA OWNER” or “CHINA OWNER&CREW,” based on data from the ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic. The signals were entered as short destination notes broadcast through ships’ transponders while they transited or operated in the region.
Ana Subasic, a trade risk analyst at data and analytics firm Kpler, which owns MarineTraffic, said the “main goal of vessels publicly identifying themselves as ‘Chinese’ while transiting the Gulf or the Strait of Hormuz is primarily to reduce the risk of being attacked rather than to facilitate passage through the strait itself.” Subasic said some of the vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz and headed to their destinations, while others remained in the area.
The AP report links the apparent strategy to a broader view inside shipping risk circles about how Iran and affiliated groups have treated ships connected to China. Subasic said Iran and affiliated groups have generally avoided targeting ships linked to China, citing China’s relatively neutral stance and its stronger economic ties with Iran.
Kun Cao, client director at consulting firm Reddal, described the signals as more about preventing misidentification than enabling navigation. “The message is more like ‘do not mistake me for the kind of ship you said you would hit,’” Cao said.
The heightened concerns come as Iranian attacks on vessels in the Persian Gulf and the wider region have damaged shipping. The Associated Press reported that at least 19 commercial ships around the region had been damaged in the war as of Thursday.
While many of the vessels identified by MarineTraffic as using China-linked messages were not “China flagged,” their flag states included Panama and the Marshall Islands, the AP reported. Cao said a ship’s flag often has limited relationship to the ship owner’s nationality in commercial shipping.
Analysts said the operational effectiveness of declaring China-linked information remains uncertain. Rico Luman, a senior economist at Dutch bank ING who focuses on transport and logistics, told the AP that the actual effectiveness of declaring themselves as China-linked in avoiding attacks is unclear.
Subasic explained that destination signals are short notes or messages manually entered by a ship’s crew into a vessel’s transponder, a global positioning system locator, and other broadcast systems. She said they typically show a ship’s intended next port and are usually intended for navigation safety, traffic awareness and port planning, adding that because the signals are not strictly verified in real time, some vessels occasionally use them to display additional information or signals such as references to ownership or nationality.
The AP said the approach resembles steps some ships took during earlier Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, when some vessels adopted similar messaging by declaring themselves or their crew as having links to China. In that earlier context, the AP reported, the move appeared intended to reduce risks of attacks from the Iranian-backed Houthis.
The region’s shipping operators now face the practical challenge of translating risk assumptions into public, quickly entered messages—at a time when destination signals can be broadcast widely even as their meaning and reliability depend on how attackers interpret them.