In mid-august 2017, our enforcement officers travelled to Shanghai over the weekend and worked overtime for two nights to arrest two ships owned by a judgment debtor. The local maritime safety administration offered assistance.

The enforcement applicant, a transport and trade company in Hainan, had got into a dispute with the judgment debtors, a shipping company in Jinzhou and an individual, Gao, with relation to a contract of carriage of goods by domestic waterways. As a ship owned by the judgment debtors had sunk in the waters of Zhanjiang, Guangdong, the cargo carried on board shipped by the enforcement applicant had sunk along with the ship, resulting in direct economic losses of over CNY 10 million. After the case got into the enforcement procedure, we duly served an enforcement notice and an order to report property on the judgment debtors. However, the judgment debtors refused to show up or fulfil their obligations for compensation as ordered in the effective judgment. On 18 August, after lots of research, our enforcement bureau learnt that two ships owned by one of the judgment debtors, the shipping company in Jinzhou, were to call at ports in Shanghai for cargo discharge respectively on the same day and the next day. The enforcement bureau immediately dispatched officers to Shanghai. They arrived around midnight at the discharging port where one of the ships was located. The discharge operation was about to be completed, and the ship was about to depart. Our enforcement officers promptly boarded the ship to impose the arrest. However, the master was insolent and would not cooperate in the arrest formalities. Under such circumstances, the enforcement judge decisively served the ship arrest document and duly warned the master against the legal consequences of refusal to cooperate in the court enforcement. After leaving the ship, the enforcement officers hurried to the command centre of the local maritime safety administration. With their assistance, the ship was eventually arrested in an anchorage in Wusongkou, Shanghai. Early the next morning, the enforcement officers rushed to and searched Shanghai ports where the other ship owned by the judgment debtor might call at. After 10pm, they finally located the ship and arrested it after it had berthed at a port.