Chinese Fishery website on January 17, 2012 published Announcement No.1 issued on January 12, 2012 by Chinese Agriculture Ministry regulating the 2012 fishing holiday season in the East Sea region, effective from 12 p.m. May 16 through 12 p.m. August 1, 2012, which covers some areas of Vietnamese waters. In response to questions from the media concerning this announcement, on January 20, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi reiterated:

“Viet Nam has indisputable sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes, the sovereign rights and jurisdictional rights over its exclusive economic zones and continental shelf in accordance with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

China’s unilateral implementation of such fishing ban in the East Sea is a violation of Vietnamese sovereignty over the Hoang Sa archipelago, sovereign rights and jurisdictional rights over Viet Nam’s exclusive economic zones and continental shelf, violating the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), further complicating the situation in the East Sea. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam met the Chinese side to lodge its protest against the Chinese conduct.

Source: mofa.gov.vn