8
K. Zou
part of the East China Sea, and to catch squid in the Sea of Japan and in the North
Pacific areas east of Japan. Under such new circumstances, the Sino-Japanese fishery
relations contained new factors: while the 1975 Agreement set forth some restrictive
measures on Japanese fishermen, Japan had no such correspondent measures on
Chinese fishermen and its restrictions provided in its 1977 Law on Fishery Zone did
not apply to Chinese and Korean fishermen.
The entry into force of the LOS Convention in 1994 ushered in a new era of
fishery relations between China and Japan. China proclaimed the establishment of
its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) upon its ratification of the LOS Convention and
Japan promulgated its Law on the EEZ and the Continental Shelf in 1996. Since the
broadest width of the East China Sea is less than 400 nm, the whole sea area becomes
EEZs that are shared by China, Japan and Korea. The fishery relationship between the
two sides inevitably needed a new adjustment. Strong voices from fishermen of both
sides advocated that their governments should take necessary steps to protect their
interests. Japanese fishermen and political bodies pushed their government to seek
a solution that could eventually keep Chinese fishermen away from the sea areas on
the Japanese side by imposing stricter regulations, whereas Chinese fishermen urged
their government to find an arrangement that could maintain their existing fishing
grounds in the Japanese EEZ on the ground that Japan had fished considerably along
the Chinese coast since the 1950s. As a result, the two sides finally reached agreement
in September 1997 regarding the fishery management in the East China Sea.
22
1.3 Declaration on the Territorial Sea
The most important legal document in China before its joining the LOS Convention
is the Declaration on the Territorial Sea publicised in September 1958. It contains a
number of significant provisions concerning the law of the sea and some still have
implications for the development of China’s practice in the law of the sea.
Regarding the limit of the territorial sea, the Declaration stipulates that the breadth
of the territorial sea of the People’s Republic of China shall be twelve nautical
miles. This provision applies to all territories of the People’s Republic of China,
including the Chinese mainland and its coastal islands, as well as Taiwan and its
surrounding islands, the Penghu Islands and all other islands belonging to China
which are separated from the mainland and its coastal islands by the high seas.
China uses straight baselines connecting basepoints on the mainland coast and on
the outermost of the coastal islands. The water area inside the baseline, including
Pohai Bay and Chiungchow Straits, are Chinese inland waters. The islands inside the
baseline, including Tungyin Island, Kaoteng Island, the Matsu Islands, the Paichuan
Islands, Wuchiu Island, the Greater and Lesser Quemoy Islands, Tatan Island, Erhtan
22 Fishery Agreement between the People’s Republic of China and Japan, 11 November 1997 (in
Chinese). English text translated by this author is available in Zou Keyuan, Law of the Sea in East
Asia (London: Routledge, 2005b), 175–180.
K. Zou
part of the East China Sea, and to catch squid in the Sea of Japan and in the North
Pacific areas east of Japan. Under such new circumstances, the Sino-Japanese fishery
relations contained new factors: while the 1975 Agreement set forth some restrictive
measures on Japanese fishermen, Japan had no such correspondent measures on
Chinese fishermen and its restrictions provided in its 1977 Law on Fishery Zone did
not apply to Chinese and Korean fishermen.
The entry into force of the LOS Convention in 1994 ushered in a new era of
fishery relations between China and Japan. China proclaimed the establishment of
its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) upon its ratification of the LOS Convention and
Japan promulgated its Law on the EEZ and the Continental Shelf in 1996. Since the
broadest width of the East China Sea is less than 400 nm, the whole sea area becomes
EEZs that are shared by China, Japan and Korea. The fishery relationship between the
two sides inevitably needed a new adjustment. Strong voices from fishermen of both
sides advocated that their governments should take necessary steps to protect their
interests. Japanese fishermen and political bodies pushed their government to seek
a solution that could eventually keep Chinese fishermen away from the sea areas on
the Japanese side by imposing stricter regulations, whereas Chinese fishermen urged
their government to find an arrangement that could maintain their existing fishing
grounds in the Japanese EEZ on the ground that Japan had fished considerably along
the Chinese coast since the 1950s. As a result, the two sides finally reached agreement
in September 1997 regarding the fishery management in the East China Sea.
22
1.3 Declaration on the Territorial Sea
The most important legal document in China before its joining the LOS Convention
is the Declaration on the Territorial Sea publicised in September 1958. It contains a
number of significant provisions concerning the law of the sea and some still have
implications for the development of China’s practice in the law of the sea.
Regarding the limit of the territorial sea, the Declaration stipulates that the breadth
of the territorial sea of the People’s Republic of China shall be twelve nautical
miles. This provision applies to all territories of the People’s Republic of China,
including the Chinese mainland and its coastal islands, as well as Taiwan and its
surrounding islands, the Penghu Islands and all other islands belonging to China
which are separated from the mainland and its coastal islands by the high seas.
China uses straight baselines connecting basepoints on the mainland coast and on
the outermost of the coastal islands. The water area inside the baseline, including
Pohai Bay and Chiungchow Straits, are Chinese inland waters. The islands inside the
baseline, including Tungyin Island, Kaoteng Island, the Matsu Islands, the Paichuan
Islands, Wuchiu Island, the Greater and Lesser Quemoy Islands, Tatan Island, Erhtan
22 Fishery Agreement between the People’s Republic of China and Japan, 11 November 1997 (in
Chinese). English text translated by this author is available in Zou Keyuan, Law of the Sea in East
Asia (London: Routledge, 2005b), 175–180.