ABSTRACT
International co-operation in shipping Due to the trading block by the western powers, partners for the Chinese government in terms of trade cooperation could only be the socialist countries in the early 1950s, and the first was to take action was Poland where the state set-up a relatively strong link in shipping. On 15 June 1951, the governments of China and Poland set up the Chinese-Polish Joint Stock Shipping Co, in Tianjin (China) with a branch office in Gdynia (Poland) with the governments as the only shareholders following a proposal by Poland. The vessels flew the Polish flag. In July 1951, the Chinese government signed an agreement that Czechoslovakia was entrusted to operate two ocean-going vessels. The socalled entrustment of operation meant that Chinese vessels were fully operated by the Czechoslovakian authorities. China only provided a certain number of the seafarers. In terms of financial administration, Czechoslovakia settled accounts annually and took 3 per cent of the total revenue from service operation.
