With the final objective to make their country a maritime power in the military, economic, scientific and technological fields, over the last few years, Chinese authorities have defined the outline of a national strategy for maritime development including the reinforcement and the restructuring of China’s maritime economy. If this development of the maritime economy is seen economically as a priority, it also has to take into account national and international expectations in terms of sustainable development, protection of marine ecosystem and of course fighting against climate change.

On the occasion of World Ocean Day, the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) is organising in collaboration with the Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Consulate general of France in Hong Kong and Macao an international symposium that precisely aims at analysing this relationship between the development of the maritime economy in China and the challenge of sea and ocean sustainability at the local, regional and global levels. This analysis implies to present public policies and recent changes in some sectors of the maritime economy like fisheries or maritime transport but also to assess impacts on marine resources and ecosystem, especially in the China seas. For this reason, the organisers of this symposium wished to bring together specialists of social sciences and specialists of marine sciences from Hong Kong, mainland China, France and elsewhere, considering that a dialogue and exchanges of views between them is essential for better understanding this important issue while China is seeking not without difficulties to combine economic growth and sustainable development.

Organizers:

French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (CEFC) ;

The Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS), the University of Hong Kong (HKU) &

The Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macao

With the support of the

Institut Français (Paris) ;

The National Center for Scientific Research of France (CNRS) &

The Hong Kong Maritime Museum Education and Public Engagement Team.

Date:

7 – 8 June 2018

Venue:

The University of Hong Kong, Chow Yei Ching Building (Campus Map)

• June 7^th: G/F – CBA, Lecture Theatre
• June 8^th: LG1/F – CBC, Lecture Theatre

Programme:

Day 1: 7 June

9:00-9:10: Registration

9:10-9:45: Opening Ceremony [Video 1, Prof. Gray Williams], [Video 2, Mr. Eric Berti], [Video 3, Dr. Sébastien Colin]

9:45-11:00: Keynote speech

• The Global challenge of sea and ocean sustainability (Daniel Pauly, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver) [Video]

11:00-11:15: Coffee break

11:15-12:30: Session 1: Fisheries policy in China and European Union

• China’s fisheries policy: objectives, recent developments and challenges (Zhang Hongzhou, RSIS, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) [Video]
• The key features of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (Michel Morin, Center for Maritime and Oceanic Law, University of Nantes, France; Former Legal Officer at the Directorate-General for Fisheries of the European Commission, Brussels) [Video]
• Question and Answer Session [Video]

12:30-14:00: Lunch

14:00-17:00: Session 2: The development of maritime transport and coastal infrastructures in China: characteristics and impacts on the marine ecosystem

• The development of the Chinese maritime transport in the context of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (Wang Liehui, East China Normal University, Shanghai) [Video]
• The development of cruise tourism in China and the challenge of sea sustainability (Joseph Y. Y. Lau, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) [Video]

15:20-15:40: Coffee break

• China’s marine “great wall” and its environmental impacts (Dong Yunwei, Xiamen University)
• The attitude of Chinese ports towards adaptation strategies to climate change impacts (Adolf K. Y. Ng, Transport Institute, University of Manitoba, Canada) [Video]
• Question and Answer Session [Video]

***

Day 2: 8 June

9:15-12:30: Session 3: Do Hong Kong and China manage their maritime domain in a sustainable way?

• The link between plastic consumption and pollution of the marine ecosystem in Hong Kong (Christelle Not, SWIMS, The University of Hong Kong) [Video]
• Key threats to Hong Kong’s marine environment and the management loopholes (Samantha Lee, WWF Hong Kong) [Video]

 10:30-10:45: Coffee break

• The environmental situation of the China Seas: An overview (Dai Minhan, Xiamen University)
• The management of the fishing boats along the Guangdong coastal waters (Wang Xuefeng, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang) [Video]
• Conservation and utilization of fishery resources in the East China Sea (Liang Cui, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao) [Video]

12:30-14:00: Lunch

14:00-15:30: Session 4: China and the “glocal” challenge of illegal fishing

• Chinese illegal fishing in the Yellow Sea: Causes, consequences and control policies (Sebastien Colin, French Centre for Research on Contemporary China, Hong Kong) [Video]
• The EU, China and the fight against illegal fishing: Comparative analysis of the EU and China approaches to the fight against illegal fishing from the point of view of international law (Michel Morin, Center for Maritime and Oceanic Law, University of Nantes, France; Former Legal Officer at the Directorate-General for Fisheries of the European Commission, Brussels) [Video]

15:30-16:00: Concluding words [Video]

Programme of the Symposium can be downloaded on the weblink : [Download]

The symposium was held in English.