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CIRCULAR OF THE GENERAL OFFICE OF THE STATE COUNCIL CONCERNING CHINA'S ACCESSION TO THE HAGUE CONVENTION AND THE MONTREAL CONVENTION

    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 17 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 null and void. The two Conventions became applicable to
China on October 10, 1980.

    Since the beginning of the 19960s, 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 refered 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.