On July 21, Wang Shuguang, Director-General of China Department of Ocean, and Conrad Lautenbacher, US Undersecretary of Commerce for Ocean and Atmosphere, signed extensions of Sino-US Protocols on Atmosphere and on Marine and Fisheries.

Revisions have been made for this extension, involving participation of personnel, intellectual property rights protection, processing of sensitive information and equipment pertaining to security, defense and foreign affairs.

The extension will promote the Sino-US cooperation on ocean and fisheries in a more positive and active way.

This is the fifth extension of this agreement. It means that China and US will keep on their cooperation on ocean for the next five years or even longer time to follow, which has been very successful so far since it started 25 years ago.

The Protocols was signed on May 8, 1979 under the framework of US-China Science and Technology Agreement.

(People's Daily July 22, 2004)