The Paracel and Spratly Islands have never been Chinese territory!

Despite decades of research, piecemeal reasoning, and argumentation, China has yet to prove when it first occupied the Paracel and Spratly Islands, or how it exercised that "sovereignty." This is something they can never achieve, because the Paracel and Spratly Islands have never been Chinese territory.

Research reveals that while the Paracel and Spratly Islands were indeed recorded and described in Chinese documents, these only reflected contemporary Chinese understanding of the geography, history, customs, and maritime routes from China to other countries. There was no record of Chinese people "going to these two archipelagos for production." These works can only be considered as documents demonstrating a shared understanding of the locations and have no legal significance. According to Mr. Nguyen Dinh Dau, a member of the Executive Committee of the Vietnam Historical Association, it is difficult to accept the conclusions drawn by Chinese authors that the Paracel and Spratly Islands have long been Chinese territory: “Ancient Chinese maps of Vietnam from around the beginning of the 15th century clearly show the location of Vietnam as Giao Chi Quoc, the country of Giao Chi, and the sea as Giao Chi Duong, meaning the land is Giao Chi Quoc and the sea is Giao Chi's sea. Hundreds of other international maps also clearly show the Paracel and Spratly Islands as belonging to Vietnam. All are very consistent with each other.”

The Chinese also presented other evidence to prove their long-standing sovereignty over these two archipelagos.



A map drawn by Jodocus Hondius in 1613 confirms that the Paracel and Spratly Islands belong to Vietnam - Photo: Provided by Dr. Tran Duc Anh Son - Deputy Director of the Institute for Economic and Social Development Research of Da Nang City.

During the Northern Song Dynasty (10th-12th centuries), military patrols were organized, originating from Guangdong and extending to the Paracel Islands. The conclusion was then that "the Northern Song court placed the Paracel Islands under its jurisdiction," and "the Chinese navy patrolled the Paracel Islands." However, a closer analysis of this data reveals that these were not patrols but merely geographical explorations extending to the Indian Ocean, providing no evidence of actual occupation.

The second point is that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited astronomical surveys conducted in the "South China Sea" during the early Yuan Dynasty to claim that "the Paracel Islands were within the territory of China during the Yuan Dynasty." However, from the records in the Yuan History, it is clear that the astronomical surveys in 27 locations were not "nationwide" surveys as Beijing's document states, but rather "surveys of all four seas," hence the inclusion of several places outside "Chinese territory," such as Goryeo (now Korea), Tiele (now Siberia, Russia), and the South China Sea. Furthermore, the Yuan History itself clearly states that the southern "territory" of China during the Yuan Dynasty only extended to Hainan Island.

After carefully reviewing the documents presented by the Chinese, Monique Chemillier Gendreau, professor of public law and political science at the University of Paris VII Denis Diderot, former President of the French Association of Democratic Lawyers, and former President of the European Lawyers Association, concluded that the Chinese knew quite a long time ago that there were many scattered islands in the South China Sea, but these documents were not sufficient legal grounds to support the argument that China was the first country to discover, explore, exploit, and manage these two archipelagos.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese documents show that Vietnam not only has long-standing knowledge of these two archipelagos but has also effectively possessed them since at least the 17th century, being the first state to establish sovereignty over them.

PV (compiled)