China and the Law of the Sea: An Update

• Author: Guifang Xue
• Position: Director and Professor, Institute for the Law of the Sea, Ocean University of China
• Pages: 97-110

IV

China and the Law of the Sea: An Update

Guifang Xue*

Introduction

This article examines the practice of the People's Republic of China with re-

spect to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982

LOS Convention). 1Two principal areas will be assessed: China's efforts to accom-

modate the challenges of the Convention to its ocean domain as acoastal State and

its major maritime legislation to implement the Convention regime. The analysis

begins with a brief introduction of China's maritime features and areview of its

basic stance toward the Convention. This is followed by adiscussion of the major

challenges China encountered while establishing its ocean domain based on the

Convention regime. China's efforts in implementing the 1982 LOS Convention

through national legislation are examined to assess the consistency of that statu-

tory framework with Convention requirements. Finally, conclusions are drawn

from China's law of the sea practice. It is shown that China, for its part, has been

accelerating domestic procedures with aview to enabling it to comply with Con-

vention requirements. However, China's maritime practice has not been wholly

consistent with Convention provisions. At the same time, China's oceans policy

adjustments indicate amove away from its previous position as solely acoastal

*Director and Professor, Institute for the Law of the Sea, Ocean University of China. The views

expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the

government of the People's Republic of China. Part of this article is built on the author's

previous work entitled China and International Fisheries Law and Policy, published by Martinus

Nijhoff Publishers in 2005. Those portions are reprinted with the permission of Koninklijke Brill

NV.