[1] Cabbage tactics were first named by Rear Admiral Zhang Zhaozhong of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).
[4] According to The New York Times Magazine, Zhang Zhaozhong "described a “cabbage strategy,” which entails surrounding a contested area with so many boats — fishermen, fishing administration ships, marine surveillance ships, navy warships — that “the island is thus wrapped layer by layer like a cabbage.”"[5] Ahmet Goncu, an associate professor at China's Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, stated: "Whenever there is a conflicted small island, the Chinese military and paramilitary forces are sent to overwhelm the islands and lay siege to the surrounding islands with military ships, fishing boats along with other kinds of paramilitary vessels."
[6] The strategy also involves the People's Armed Forces Maritime Militia, which includes fishermen, serving as a first line of defense.
For instance, in 2009 the American survey ship Impeccable encountered cabbage tactics from Chinese maritime forces.
[10] In 2013, The New York Times Magazine published a multimedia feature piece exploring the South China Sea that covered the concept of cabbage tactics in depth.