ABSTRACT
The maritime aspects of China's foreign relations in the 1950s played but a minor part in the People's Republic of China (PRC) effort to establish itself as an important, sovereign actor on the world stage. The Young School of naval coastal defense strategy and China's dependence upon coastal fisheries were thus primary considerations in extending the territorial waters claim. The new 12-mile claim gave rise to the phenomenon of Chinese "serious warnings" concerning alleged intrusions of foreign ships and aircraft into the enlarged area of PRC-claimed waters. The most serious international maritime issue for China in the 1950s was that of fishing rights in the Yellow and East China seas. Yet between 1950 and the end of 1954, Chinese naval and maritime militia craft seized 158 Japanese fishing boats and nearly 2,000 crewmen, most of them on the high seas.
