• Summary

This legal document contains the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone promulgated on 25 February 1992, which has 17 articles. The document includes the interpretation and the measurement of, the PRC’s jurisdiction in, and foreign vessels’ rights and duties within the PRC’s baseline, territorial sea, and continuous zone. Notably, Article 2 states “The PRC’s territorial sea refers to the waters adjacent to its territorial land”, and territorial land consists of Taiwan and the disputed islands such as Diaoyu Island, Xisha Islands, and Nansha (Spratly) Islands. Article 3 clarifies that the PRC territorial sea’s baseline is “designated with the method of straight baselines formed by joining the various base points with straight lines” on the basis that its coast is intended in many places without clarifying the qualification method for islands vicinity to its coast to form the basepoints until 1996. Article 6 requires prior notice to and permission from the PRC government for military vessels to conduct innocent passage through the PRC territorial water., which is not provided in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Finally, in Article 13, the prevention of infringement of its ‘security’ was also included as a purpose of its exercises of control over the contiguous zone, which is not stated in the UNCLOS on Coastal States’ jurisdiction over its contiguous zone.

• Document: People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone on 25 February 1992 (English version, adopted from UN Treaty Series)