CNOOC 981, the first deep-water drilling rig developed in China, is pictured at 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Hong Kong in the East Sea

(VOVworld)- The China National Offshore Oil Corporation’s drilling rig HD-981’s operation in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf has been opposed by several countries and even Chinese scholars. In an article on May 6 in his blog on 163.com, China’s leading scholar Li Ling Hua stated that China was a signatory to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and needed to abide by Article 74 and 83 of the Convention on respecting the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone 200 nautical miles of adjacent coasts.