TNAG-0943-FCO40-1162-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 283

CONFIDENTIAL

Hong Kong's territorial waters.

DSR 11C

128

A "Declaration on China's Territorial Sea" issued by the Chinese People's Government on 4 September 1958 established China's

position on territorial waters and claimed a twelve-mile limit.

Since

China claims that Hong Kong is part of China, theoretically anything within a twelve-mile sinuous border of Hong Kong might also be claimed as Chinese territorial water (see Map Annex A(ii)). In practice, however, China's

view of Hong Kong's territorial waters is better defined by customary

{

usage and tacit consent than claims of principle.

1

129

The extent of Hong Kong waters is a complicated question. By

the Convention of Peking of 1898 the limits of the Colony were enlarged

within a boundary which took in considerable areas of water, including

apparently areas of the high sea. From the land border with Guangdong

Province westwards the boundary follows the high-water mark along

Deep Bay and most of the west coast of Lantau Island; in the east,

the boundary follows the high-water mark around Mirs Bay. These

points are linked by straight lines across the waters of the South China Sea

to form a "square boundary" (see Map Annex A(i)). The Convention specifically

provided that the area leased to Great Britain

of Mirs Bay and Deep Bay".

includes the waters

130

"

However, as long ago as 1937, the British Government took the

view that, notwithstanding the leased area delimited by the Peking

Convention of 1898, Hong Kong (like the United Kingdom) has a

territorial sea of three miles, measured in the usual way. The

boundary described by the Convention of Peking was considered a

delimitation of the area within which all territory was leased and,

accompanying that territory, the normal territorial waters.

In 1937

/the Governor