SHANGHAI ¨C On Aug. 17, Indonesia celebrated its independence day with a bang ¡ª blowing up several Chinese boats that had been caught fishing illegally in its waters and impounded. China doesn¡¯t dispute Indonesia¡¯s territorial claims, but Chinese fishermen have more pressing concerns. According to reports in Chinese state media this week, overfishing and pollution have so depleted China¡¯s own fishery resources that in some places ¡ª including the East China Sea ¡ª there are virtually ¡°no fish¡± left.

That¡¯s a frightening prospect for an increasingly hungry country: China accounted for 35 percent of the world¡¯s seafood consumption in 2015. Seeking catches further afield ¡ª including in Indonesian waters ¡ª isn¡¯t really a solution; fish stocks in the disputed South China Sea have themselves fallen by as much as 95 percent from 1950s levels. If China doesn¡¯t want the rest of Asia¡¯s fisheries to suffer the same fate as its own, it¡¯s going to have to think much more ambitiously about how to create a sustainable food supply for the region.

As in other developing countries, China¡¯s ascent up the income ladder has been accompanied by an improvement in quality and quantity of diet. Seafood ¡ª once a pricey luxury in much of the country ¡ª has become commonplace, even inland; China is now the world¡¯s biggest seafood consumer and exporter.