Vietnam has protested and dismissed China’s annual ban on fishing ban in the East Sea, the Vietnamese name for the South China Sea, for the next two-and-a-half months.
Le Hai Binh, spokesman for the Vietnamese foreign affairs ministry, said in a statement late Saturday that the ban violates Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago, its sovereign rights, and jurisdiction over its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
“Vietnam dismissed the ban as null and void,” Binh said.
The municipal administration of Haikou in Hainan, China’s southernmost province, on Saturday clamped the annual ban in northern part of the East Sea. The affected area, stretching to the waters between Guangdong and Fujian provinces, would entail the Paracels island chain, which China took from Vietnam by force in 1974 and the Scarborough Shoal, a disputed reef in the Spratly Islands China has seized control since 2012, and the Gulf of Tonkin.
The ban, which was introduced in 1999 and will last until August 1, applies to both Chinese and foreign boats fishing in the area. China has said the ban is aimed at protecting marine resources and promoting environmental awareness among fishermen.