Laws of the People's Republic of China

Upon approval by the State Council, China acceded on September 10, 1980 to the Convention Concerning the Checking of the Illegal Hijacking of Aircraft (hereinafter referred to as "the Hague Convention") and the Convention Concerning the Checking of Illegal Acts that Jeopardize Civil Aviation Safety (hereinafter referred to as "the Montreal Convention") which had been concluded internationally, and declared at the time of accedence that China shall not be bound by Paragraph 1 of Article 12 of the Hague convention and paragraph 1 of Article 14 of the Montreal Convention and that the signing and rectification of the Conventions by the Taiwan authorities in the name of China are illegal and Mull and void. The two Conventions became applicable to China on October 10, 1980.

Since the beginning of the 1960s, incidents involving using violence to hijack civil aircraft and damaging civil aviation facilities have frequently occurred in the world. In order to check such acts of terrorism and safeguard the safety of international civil aviation, the International Civil Aviation Organization presided in 1963 over the formulation of the Convention Concerning Crimes and Some Other Acts in Aircraft (hereinafter referred to as "the Tokyo Convention", to which China acceded in November 1978 upon approval by the State Council) and, following that it formulated in 1970 and 1971 successively the Hague Convention and the Montreal Convention. These Conventions are of positive significance to protecting the safety of civil aircraft and other civil aviation facilities.

In recent years, although the incidence of hijacking and other terrorist acts has been reduced in the world, they do occur occasionally; and on China's civil aircraft, there have been three attempted hijacking incidents for the purpose of fleeing the country. In order to ensure the safety in transport for international and domestic airliners and effectively guard against the occurrence of hijacking and other criminal acts, it is hoped that various regions and competent departments earnestly implement the relevant Articles of the aforementioned international Conventions (for the translated Chinese version of the Hague Convention and the Montreal Convention, please see the State Council Bulletin Number 17 of 1980 and, for the translated Chinese version of the Tokyo Convention, please see the document of the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ref.: (78) Zhijizi No. 591), heighten their vigilance, tighten the ground security check and the on board security protection measures and strictly prevent any attempt to use violence to hijack aircraft or damage civil aviation facilities so as to guarantee the safety in China's civil aviation. In the event that incidents should occur involving foreign countries such as hijacked foreign aircraft landing in China, the matter should be handled properly in accordance with the law of China and with reference to the relevant provisions of the aforementioned three Conventions.