The document has been sent to the Government Office, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Party Central Committee's Commission for External Relations, saying that according to Xinhua news agency, authorities of Haikou city, China's southernmost Hainan province announced the city’s fishing ban, from 12:00 on May 16 to 12:00 on August 1, over the sea from 12 degrees north parallel to the border of the waters of China's Guangdong province with Fujian province (including several areas under Vietnam’s sovereignty).
The act has been repeated for many years, preventing Vietnamese fishermen from their daily production, causing loses and decreased yields for fisheries, and violating Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes, as well as Vietnam’s national sovereignty and jurisdiction rights over waters in line with the 1982 United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea, the document said.
It said that the VFS strongly protested China’s unilateral and preposterous act and that China’s decision was invalid.
The organisation asked the relevant agencies to seek effective measures as soon as possible to prevent and terminate China’s act, banish Chinese vessels which take advantage of the ban to violate waters under Vietnam’s sovereignty, catch fish illegally and conduct other illegal activities.
The VFS suggested regular presence of law enforcement forces at sea to enhance protection of Vietnamese fishermen against Chinese vessels’ while the fishermen are catching fish in Vietnam’s waters.
