China

There is no Chinese law that expressly names recreational spearfishing (underwater fishing with a speargun/pole spear). It falls under the general Fisheries Law of the People's Republic of China, which is built around a licensing regime for inland and inshore fishing and a list of prohibited gear/methods. The Fisheries Law (Art. 16/23) requires a fishing licence for inland-water or inshore fishing; the law and its implementing regulations empower the fishery authorities to ban specific gear and methods, and prohibit fishing in closed areas and during closed seasons (Art. 20/30). In practice recreational marine fishing in China is lightly developed and region-specific: provinces and localities set their own rules and most permitting is aimed at commercial fisheries, so recreational sea-angling is often unregulated while underwater spearfishing is uncommon and not provided for. All of coastal China is subject to the annual summer fishing moratorium (休渔期), during which essentially all forms of fishing other than hand line/rod angling are banned in the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China Seas. Spearfishing is also prohibited inside marine nature reserves and national parks (e.g. the Sanya Coral Reef National Nature Reserve). Treat spearfishing as restricted/uncertain: legality depends on local provincial rules, the moratorium calendar and whether the site is a protected area; importing a speargun may be treated as a regulated/weapon item by Chinese customs. No source was found that confirms an explicit national permit or framework for recreational spearfishing.