Why does Vietnam not recognize China's fishing ban?

Starting from May to August every year, the Hainan provincial government, China often unilaterally bans fishing in the East Sea with the reason of preserving and developing fish resources in the breeding season. According to this ban, Chinese Coast Guard agencies often conduct patrols to punish and arrest fishing boats, causing a lot of trouble for fishermen in the central provinces. Why does our country not acknowledge and always oppose this ban?

We all know that conserving and developing fish resources by banning fishing is one of the simple measures to fulfill the obligations stipulated in Article 61 of the 1982 International Convention on the Law of the Sea, of which Vietnam and China are both members. However, from a biological perspective, the spawning period of fish species with economic value may not coincide with the above time.

On the other hand, the main reason why our country does not recognize this ban is because it lacks legal basis and violates our country's exclusive economic zone. According to China's fishing ban, the southern and eastern boundaries of the applicable area are from latitude 120 north and up north and from longitude 1130 east and west.

With the above scope, the fishing ban covers not only the disputed area between our country and China but also the entire sea area belonging to Vietnam because the area where China applies the fishing ban is not only related to Hoang Sa, a traditional fishing archipelago that has been closely associated with Vietnamese fishermen, especially fishermen in Quang Tri, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai provinces, which have been completely occupied by China since 1974. For nearly 40 years, Vietnam has never stopped asserting its sovereignty over this archipelago, which has been clearly recorded in history books.

Furthermore, according to the provisions of Articles 56 and 57 of the Convention on the Law of the Sea, coastal states have sovereign rights over the exploration and exploitation of resources, including seafood, within a maximum exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles. The 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone provision leads to the fact that in places where the coasts of two countries are less than 400 nautical miles apart, the exclusive economic zones will overlap and need to be demarcated. Because there is no clear boundary line between the two countries outside the Gulf of Tonkin, fishermen participating in fishing in the southern fishing grounds of the Gulf of Tonkin are often hindered and made difficult by Chinese Coast Guard vessels.

However, with the advantage of being a sea area under our country's sovereignty and the unilateral fishing ban, our fishermen still go out to sea to fish normally and are not responsible for compliance. On the State's side, along with opposing and not recognizing the above fishing ban, on the basis of international law, our country's authorities are persistently requesting the neighboring country to demarcate the boundary, as a basis to protect the exploitation and fishing rights of fishermen in the sea area under its exclusive economic zone.

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