Offshore claims asserted by China

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33452, 6 February 1974, Page 11

Offshore claims asserted by China

CV.Z PA -Reuter—Copyright! PEKING, February 5. China has issued two blunt assertions of its offshore territorial rights, denouncing South Vietnam for occupying the Spratley Islands and protesting against a Japan-South Korea pact on oil exploitation in the East China Sea. I he protest to South V ietnam raises the possibility of a fresh confrontation in the South China Sea after the tvvo-dav battle last month in which the Chinese drove the South Vietnamese from the Paracel Islands. the Spratley Islands are about 500 miles south of the Paracels, and are claimed by the Philippines and Taiwan as well as China and South Vietnam.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement accused South Vietnam of sending Naval vessels to the Spratley islands' on February 1. and said that the move was “a new military i provocation,” against the Chinese people. “The Government of the People’s Republic of China definitely will not tolerate infringement on China’s territorial integrity and sovereignty by the Saigon authorities on any pretext,” said the statement, as issued yesterday by the official New China' News Agency. The Chinese protest had,

been widely predicted since ■ iit was reported from Saigon! last week that the South Viet-; ■namese had sent commandos; ■[to reinforce their military [ presence on the Spratley 11 Islands. The Chinese statement didi 1 not specify what action; ; Peking would take, but ob-l servers believe that the ■ Chinese will, if necessary, act; ■ as decisively as they did ini ■ the Paracels and attempt to; i remove the South Vietnamese [ ■ by force. i The second statement; (issued today protested ; against an agreement be-1

;tween Japan and South Korea!. [Signed in Seoul on January 130 in which the two countries i demarcated a joint developiment zone in the East China - Sea where petroleum and natural gas would be exploited. j “This act is an infringement on China’s sovereignty, ■which the Chinese Govern-j Iment absolutely cannot ■accept,” the protest said, j “If the Japanese Govern;ment and the South Korean, [authorities arbitrarily carry .out development activities in this area, they must bear full responsibility for all.

(consequences arising therefrom,” it added. The statement said that the question of how to divide the continental shelf in the East China SCa should be decided ;by Chinese and other counI tries concerned through (negotiation. The statement did not say how much of the continental i shelf China claimed. Last year China issued a protest to South Korea over offshore oil exploitation between the Korean Peninsula and the Chinese mainland. China has not laid down its exact territorial waters ■claim, although it has given active support to African and Latin American countries [which have claimed a 200mile limit. •The whole issue, largely academic a few years ago, has been brought sharply into focus with the realisation that huge oil deposits may lie under the South China Sea and the walers off the ■ Chinese mainland. Observers believe that > because of this factor China : may wish to seek agreements ■ with its neighbours soon to u obtain an incontestable delimitation of its own waters.