In ancient time, SCS was a busy water route, which was called Maritime Silk Road. And there were several fisheries for Chinese fishermen. The odds that those islands were not found by ancient Chinese is zero. Actually, there were evidences once. On some of the islands, there were temples and tombs built by Chinese. But right after these islands were stolen, the evidences were wiped away by thief gov. And their ppl were told nothing was there. Our ancient books also mentioned these islands many times.
People lived in ancient time didn't have the concept of asserting sovereignty. I don't know to whom you claimed your sovereignty and how you maintained your sovereignty. Sounds funny that your ancestors could do the acts only modern ppl could do. And how your ancient gov managed these islands that are so far away from your mainland? There is word you guys always mentioned: brain-washed. By the way, there was no country called Vietnam in 1939. So Japan couldn't stole something from air. In 1939, China was fighting against Japan's invasion. France and Japan had not declared war to each other yet. For Japanese, there is only one explanation: They took the islands from China, not from France.
Cairo statement didn't mention Hainan island either. It always belongs to China. So we did't need Japanese to "return" us.
All I said are the truth. Ancient Chinese never claimed sovereignty to the islands. They just take it for granted that they own the water field. People at that time just didn't do it. Just like ancient people didn't play computer games. Your story is too perfect to be true.
I agree that Taiwan was officially given up by China in 1895. It belonged to Japan in 1939. But we officially took it back in 1945.
Hey Chinese, please see below to know how Vietnamese ancestors played "computer games" as you said:
1. Dai Nam Thuc Luc Chinh bien ( 大南實錄·大南寔錄 - A true record of Great Viet Nam) - Writen by National History Institue of Nguyen Dynasty, 1848
Tomb 52:
In the year of Binh Ty, the dynastic title Gia Long the 15th (1816)….The king sent the naval force and the Hoang Sa boat team to Hoang Sa to explore the sea route:
Tomb 165:
In the year of Binh Than, the dynastic title Minh Mang the 17th (1836), the spring of January 1st….Bo Cong reports: the Border of our country’s sea area has Hoang Sa (Paracels) land which is very important and vulnerable.
In the past a physical map was drawn, very large but not clear. Every year, people were sent to explore so as to learn the sea route.
From this year on, when the end of January came, the naval force and the guards were to be sent on a boat to go to Quang Ngai in early February, asking Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh to lease 4 boats from the people to go to Hoang Sa island, to any island, any sandbank there; when the boats came, they started to measure the length and the width, the breadth and the height, the circuit of the island and the depth of the sea, the underground dumps, if any. And then they had to draw a map. They had to think about their departure date, which estuary they started, which direction they aimed to go to the island, then based on the route to estimate the length in miles. Then from the island to look towards the shore, aim straight to certain province, then change to stand squarely towards another province, to estimate the length from there to the shore. This must be carried out without delay and report it to the court”.
“The king having heard the report sent a naval force led by Pham Huu Nhat to go the island, bringing along 10 wooden boards so as to plant as marking board there (each board is 5m long, 50cm large, 10 cm thick inscribed with the words: Minh Mang the 17th, the year of Binh Than, commander Pham Huu Nhat of the naval force, ordered by the King to go to Hoang Sa to take care and make measurements for rememberance”.
2. Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi (大南ー統志 - History of Unification of Great Viet Nam) Writen by National History Institue of Nguyen Dynasty, 1865-1910)
“In the East of Quang Ngai province there is the sand island (Hoang Sa, Paracels) with sandy beaches adjacent to the sea, used as the moat; in the Southwest of the highlands there were solid long ramparts, the South connecting to Binh Đinh there was Ben Da Pass blocking, in the North adjacent to Quang Nam province there was Sa Tho rapids as a boundary….
…. In the early time of King Gia Long, a Hoang Sa team was set up in accordance with the old custom, in early time of King Minh Mang, public boats were often sent to explore the sea route, having found a white sand bank with the circuit of 1,070 truong (one truong equals 10 metres) with green foliage all around, in the middle of the sandbank there was a well, in the Southwest, there was an ancient temple with unknown construction time, but it had a stele inscribed 4 words “Van Ly Ba Binh” (Thousands of miles with quiet waves). This sandbank was formerly called Phat Tu Son, in the East and the West of the island there were coral reefs with a 340-truong large sandbank coming to the surface called Ban Than Thach. In the year of Minh Mang the 16th, the king sent public boats to carry bricks and stones to build a temple and plant a stele there on the left of the temple to mark and put the tree seeds on the right, the left and behind the temple. While building the temple, the workers had found copper leaves and iron of 2,000 kilos in weight”.
3. Any Vietnamese here can translate some info from Châu Bản Triều Nguyễn (Imperial archives of the Nguyen dynasty) - UNESCO World Heritage Documents about our sovereignty activities to the whole WORLD and CHINA (separately)?. Sorry for my bad English