Law of the Sea

Amid growing anxieties in China over the wisdom of the joint development deal with Japan on the East China Sea gas fields, the Chinese Foreign Ministry took the unusual step of dispatching Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei to a press briefing, insisting that China's jurisdiction and sovereign rights in the East China Sea are not compromised and that China continues to refuse to recognise Japan's median line approach for the delimitation of the seas. However, the tough rhetoric does not add up with the fact that the "block for joint development" as designated in the Principled Consensus is reportedly about evenly divided by the Japan-advocated median line, and it seems hard to argue with a Japanese official who said, "The median line surfaced as a de facto boundary of the EEZ. This has significant implications."