Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh has voiced strong protest over China's announcement of a fishing ban in the East Sea. Binh said that the act violated Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago and sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the waters under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Chinese announcement said that its ban applied to all fishing activities in the sea area from 12 degrees north parallel to the border of the waters of China's Guangdong province with Fujian province (including the Tonkin Gulf).

Vietnam protests China's East Sea fishing ban. (2015, May 19). Manila Bulletin, p. A9.