The Study On The Relationship Between China And The Negotiation Of International Law Of The Sea

Shortly after World War Ⅱ, with the rapid development of marine exploitation technologies, as well as the rapid growing needs of the energy sources and raw materials, it has been realized that the sea and its variety of resources would play an important role on the development of human society in the future. The law of the sea which is closely related to the exploitation of marine resources naturally have been concerned with by counties all over the world, and some have taken actions. In this case, although the international community had held two conferences on the law of the sea, one in 1958 and the other in 1960, having some achievements in areas such as territorial waters and the adjacent zone, the continental shelf, fisheries and conservation of fisheries resources, there were a lot of problems on the law of the sea which need to be solved. In addition, it was reflected the views and the interests of the developed maritime countries in these achievements, not the interests and the reasonable rights of medium and small developing countries. Therefore, they were not widely accepted. In the 1960s, there was a more and more loud voice in the international community which calls for a new conference on the law of the sea. demanding to modify the old law of the sea which was mainly in favor of the developed countries, to create a new law of the sea which would be in favor of the interests of developing countries as soon as possible. The Proposal of Pardo of Malta to the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1967 opened the door to a new order and mechanism of the international law of the sea. After some preparations, the Third United Nations Conference of the Law of the Sea (short for UNCLOS Ⅲ) was held at the Headquarter of the United Nations in New York on December 3,1973.UNCLOS Ⅲ had been held from 1973 to 1982, which lasted nine years. It is not only the country with the largest participation in the history of international relations, the largest and longest of an international multilateral diplomatic conference, but also the first international multilateral diplomatic activity within the framework of the United Nations fully participated by the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese delegation fully participated in each session of the Third United Nations Conference on Law of the Sea. Therefore, from the view of international relations or international law of the sea, or the history of contemporary international relations, a study on the activities of the Chinese delegation to the UNCLOS Ⅲ in the Conferences has some important historical significance.Inspired by the idea, through gathering relevant information and taking advantage of existing academic studies, combing the speeches of representatives in each session of UNCLOS Ⅲ and the Chinese views and positions on the issues in the law of the sea, combined with the domestic and international context, the author in this thesis is trying to analyze the motives and objectives behind the activities of the Chinese delegations, in order to get a better understanding the development of the Chines diplomacy policy. Furthermore, in recent years, there is an increasing trend of the disputes between China and its neighboring countries over the sovereignty of some islands or maritime rights in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, South China Sea. All the parties concerned with the disputes are trying to invoke the relevant provisions of the Convention on the Law of the Sea for the legitimacy of their claims, and the recognition and support of the international community as much as possible. Reviewing the position taken by China in UNCLOS Ⅲ, would be helpful to have a better understanding of the Convention on the Law of the Sea, to resolve disputes properly with the countries concerned within the framework of the international law of the sea, to defend our reasonable legitimate rights and interests, to keep the regional peace and co-development.This thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction, mainly introduces the significance of the topic, the research status, the research methods and the innovations.The second chapter introduces the background and the process of the UNCLOS Ⅲ. The first section introduces the history of the development of international law of the sea, highlighting the reasons why China participate the Conference. Section Two is the main process of the Conference, and the outcomes or progress which made in each session.The third and the forth chapters are mainly about China’s activities in the UNCLOS Ⅲ, which are the main part of this thesis. The third chapter is divided into three sections, the first section focuses on the reasons of China’s participation in the Conference on the Law of the Sea and the considerations on the Law of the Sea. The second section describes the relevant issues of the territorial sea baselines, the breadth of the territorial sea. the right of innocent passage issues and China’s claims, attaching with the causes. The third section describes the issues of the exclusive economic zone, the continental shelf, the delimitations of the maritime boundary and China’s claims.The fourth chapter continues to describe about China’s activities in the UNCLOS III. which is also divided into three sections. The first section focuses on issues relating to the international seabed area, as well as China’s position and proposition on these issues. The second section focuses on issues related to marine environmental protection, marine scientific research, as well as China claims. The third section describes the settlement of marine disputes, the reservations to the Conventions and China’s attitude on these issues.The fifth chapter focuses on the influence and significance of China’s participation in the UNCLOS III. First of all, it had brought great benefits to China in the political, economic, diplomatic aspects. Second of them, it showed that China had participated in building the new international maritime order and mechanism. At last, it showed that there were new movements of China’s diplomacy policy in the 1970s. China began to get rid of the previous isolation and move towards getting into the international community and the international multilateral governance.