'Ocean' becomes hot word in China

Key Words: ocean; gross production of ocean; Huangyan Island; marine economy;

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The annual national ocean conference was held in Beijing on Jan. 10, 2013. The word "ocean" has become a keyword in current Chinese society. The ocean-related topics including marine rights, manned deep submergence and polar expedition are increasingly becoming the focus of public attention.

The 18th CPC National Congress first mentioned about ‘construction of maritime power’, making the marine development one of the focuses of state development. Director of the State Oceanic Administration Liu Cigui said that given the current national conditions, the maritime power refers to a state with advanced marine economy, powerful innovation of marine science and technology, beautiful marine ecology and strong exploitation and control ability of marine resources.

Significant achievements in safeguarding maritime rights and interests

China had achieved significant results in the maintenance of maritime rights in 2012 and timely found and stopped the infringement activities of foreign countries through full and uninterrupted patrolling boats and aircraft.

After Chinese government announced the baseline of territorial sea of the Diaoyu Islands and its affiliated islets, China's maritime surveillance fleets had entered the Diaoyu Islands 18 times to carry out sea-air patrols since early September 2012, and threw a "combination blow" on the Diaoyu Islands issue by announcing the names of 71 islands including the Diaoyu Islands, the geographical coordinate of the Diaoyu Islands and geographic entities of some islands. In terms of the maintenance of legal rights on the Huangyan Island, China won the initiative and timely stopped the infringement behavior of the Philippines when the Philippine navy illegally boarded and inspected the normal operation of Chinese fishing vessels in the waters of the Huangyan Island, protecting the personal and property safety of Chinese fishermen.