Law of the Sea

Amid rising tensions in the seas surrounding China, the Chinese Government submitted to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf China's Preliminary Information Indicative of the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf Beyond 200 Nautical Miles. The submission deals only with China's claims to the continental shelf in the East China Sea. But the Government reserves the right to submit claims in other areas and challenged the submissions from Vietnam and Malaysia on the continental shelf in the South China Sea. The submissions from Japan and Korea reportedly also contain claims to areas that overlap the Chinese claims.