Xinhua (August 24) reported the election of China's Ambassador to Hungary, Duan Jielong, as a member of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on August 24. He was among six to have been elected in the first round of voting by the States Parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The other five were David J. Attard of Malta, Ida Caracciolo of Italy, Maria Teresa Infante Caffi of Chile, Maurice Kengne Kamga of Cameroon, and Markiyan Kulyk of Ukraine. One seat remains to be filled and a second round of restrictive voting will be held on Tuesday. The contenders will be Kathy-Ann Brown of Jamaica and Rodrigo Fernandes More of Brazil.

(Comment: ITLOS is an intergovernmental body set up by UNCLOS. It has 21 judges with nine-year terms and a third of the members are replaced every three years. Since its establishment in 1996, three Chinese have served as judges of the Tribunal: Zhao Lihai (1996-2000), Xu Guangjian (2001-2007) and Gao Zhiguo (2008-2020).