Crackdown on illegal vessels (operating without a proper name or number, registration certificate, and port of registry) across the whole province is an important step to create an orderly social environment for the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port. On the afternoon of August 25, the Party branch of Haikou Maritime Court Sanya Tribunal and the third Party branch of Sanya Maritime Safety Administration held a seminar to discuss the crackdown on illegal vessels, as part of the arrangements agreed in the Party Branch Collaboration Memorandum concluded by both sides. The discussion focused on the judicial procedures and the procedures for enforcement of law during the campaign. Liu Zhongxue, Fu Gancong (members of the Party committee of Sanya MSA), Zeng Jianhua (member of the Party Branch of Sanya Tribunal), together with a dozen of staff members from both sides, attended the seminar.

The MSA Party branch first briefed the situations and problems of the work in question, and the Party branch of the court addressed the relevant legal issues from three aspects: first, it introduced the procedures for the determination of unclaimed property under the Civil Procedure Law and the regulations on lost property under the Property Law; second, it gave case analysis to further explain the legal issues and concrete measures that should be taken to deal with illegal vessels through different approaches; and third, it pointed out the potential legal risks based on the judicial practice of other courts in similar cases and the situation of the work in Hainan province. Topics covered in the seminar discussion mainly included how to determine a vessel as ownerless, what methods would be taken to determine such vessel as an unclaimed property, could such vessel be dismantled and who would do the dismantling and in what procedures, and who was responsible for the costs arising therefrom.

After the seminar, the Sanya Tribunal team was invited to take a patrol boat cruise with the MSA counterparts to have a look at some of the illegal vessels detained so far.

Apart from the seminar topic, the two teams also exchanged opinions with respect to the new mechanisms, developments and changes in the current work and expected for more interactions between the two sides, such as introducing innovative collaboration between Party branches, inviting senior maritime investigators with rich mediation experience to act as special mediators at Haikou Maritime Court, and building a platform to encourage communications between the young cadres from both sides.