This is the second time I’ve seen reference to Chinese frustration with the fractured nature of their maritime law enforcement organization. As mentioned before, China currently has five different agencies that share “coast guard” duties. This has got to lead to some inefficiencies. Again we see the Chinese comparing their maritime law enforcement organization to that of the Japanese.
It will be interesting to see what the Chinese do about this perceived problem.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
Another story about the planned increased size of the Marine Surveillance force.
http://www.china-defense-mashup.com/china-marine-surveillance-force-on-continous-rising.html
“The new program will expand the Marine Surveillance force from 9,000 to 10,000 personnel and buy 36 new patrol boats. Marine Surveillance already has 300 boats and ten aircraft. In addition, Marine Surveillance collects and coordinates data from Marine Surveillance activities in ten large coastal cities and 170 coastal counties.”
“This is one of five Chinese organizations responsible for law enforcement along the coast. The others are the Coast Guard, which is a military force that constantly patrols the coasts. The Maritime Safety Administration handles search and rescue along the coast. The Fisheries Law Enforcement Command polices fishing grounds. The Customs Service polices smuggling.”
They have another agency that operates their rescue helicopters so there are actually six agencies doing “Coast Guard” work. If we counted all these agencies they are probably larger than the USCG and this is with an EEZ about one 13th the size of the US EEZ.
Some photos of Chinese Marine Surveillance cutters here. As you can see this is still a civilian service. No significant weapons on the ships. http://china-defense.blogspot.com/2011/06/selected-photos-of-china-maritime.html
Another explanation of the Chinese organization–still confusing and overly complex.
http://www.china-defense-mashup.com/parsing-chinas-fourth-fleet.html
But it is clear these organizations are still growing rapidly.