Recently, Yang Renhuo, deputy director of China's border and maritime department, and Jiang Yingxin, a review officer of the Northeast Asia Bureau of South Korea, held consultations on China-South Korea maritime issues in Shanghai. In this meeting, China's Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Natural Resources, China Coast Guard and other departments participated, aiming to steadily advance the negotiations on maritime demarcation. The ongoing dispute between China and South Korea over maritime delimitation is reminiscent of the China-South Korea Fisheries Agreement, which has caused tensions between China and South Korea in the Yellow and East Seas.
At present, there are still big differences between China and South Korea on the issue of delimitation in the Yellow Sea, and there is a large area in the China-South Korea fishery agreement that has not yet been determined, especially Suyan Reef. Normally, we are Xi to think of the Yellow Sea as China's territorial waters, but in fact, according to the schematic map of the China-South Korea Fisheries Agreement, we have some unfavorable situations in the delimitation of the sea area. Related figures, we have to mention the then Chinese ambassador to South Korea, Li Bin. Jin Yinan, a professor at the National Defense University, once mentioned that Li Bin was plotted against by the South Korean intelligence agency and continued to provide our intelligence to the South Korean side after returning to China, resulting in China being in a passive position on the Suyan Reef issue. Located on the continental shelf of the East China Sea, Suyan Reef is China's traditional fishing ground since ancient times, and its sovereignty should be unmistakable. However, in 1952, South Korea arbitrarily included Suam Reef in South Korean waters, and in 2001, it illegally set up a large offshore platform on the reef, including facilities such as a tarmac, lighthouse and pier. In 2013, South Korea added Soam Reef to its aeronautical identification zone. Since 2015, China and South Korea have been negotiating on maritime delimitation, but the two sides have been at odds over the ownership of Suyan Reef. We absolutely cannot compromise on the sovereignty of Suyan Reef. Suyan Reef belongs to China, which is the basic principle and bottom line of demarcation.
The China-South Korea fisheries agreement itself is clearly unfair, resulting in a large number of Chinese fishermen losing their traditional fishing grounds. The agreement allows South Korea to use its coast guard to take a strong stance against Chinese fishing vessels that enter the area. Over the years, we have often seen Chinese fishermen arrested and detained by the South Korean Coast Guard in the news, and the root cause of all this is this agreement. Moreover, this continues to this day. As recently as September, the South Korean Coast Guard seized a Chinese fishing vessel again for "illegal fishing." And in early November, South Korea went a step further by saying that Chinese fishing vessels operating in its exclusive economic zone must be equipped with an automatic identification system next year. The problem has grown to the point of intolerability, and the problem needs to be solved urgently.
The demarcation of the maritime boundary between China and the ROK in the Yellow Sea is bounded by the median line of the sea area, which has brought many troubles to the subsequent demarcation, but we will never compromise again. Recently, Japan has begun to propose that the East China Sea should be demarcated by the median line of the sea, but we insist on using the continental shelf as the boundary. In the South China Sea, some countries have also put forward the concept of using the continental shelf as a demarcation, but our insistence on the "10-dash line" shows that we will no longer tolerate any damage. China's sea area is the result of the struggle and hard work of our predecessors and revolutionary martyrs in history, and we must not shake it in the slightest. Now is the time to scrap the China-South Korea fisheries agreement and start a fair renegotiation, especially in the current context of tensions between China and South Korea, and quickly resolve some of the outstanding issues.