Vietnam fooling no one in maritime dispute

[TaiShang]

Although it is unfortunate, it is true that many of the present day disputes are a legacy of Japanese invasion of Asia as well as of the US' mishandling of the post-war situation.

Japan may have liberated, indirectly, the region from Western colonizers (only to colonize for itself) but, the non-return of many islands occupied by Japan to their respective owners seems to be one of the main reasons for the tensions of the day.

And Japan (officially) does not even seem to recognize the harms it has done to the region and it still continues on the same route by serving the US interests and hoping for some rewards in return.

What happened to once a great nation?

Vietnam fooling no one in maritime dispute

BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam should stop fabricating evidence and trying to renege on its recognition that Xisha Islands are part of China's sovereign territory, according to an article by a Chinese expert published on Friday.

Gong Yingchun, an associate professor of international Law at China Foreign Affairs University, said in the article that it is time for Vietnam to account to China and the international society for its successive armed occupation of 29 islands and reefs affiliated to China's Nansha Islands since the 1970s.

The following is the full text of the article, which is titled "Vietnam Fooling No One" and published on China Daily on Friday:

Continuous actions taken by Vietnam since early May disturbing the normal drilling of a Chinese oil rig in the waters off Zhongjian Island, which belongs to China's Xisha Islands, have compromised China's sovereignty, sovereign rights, right of jurisdiction and the safety of the operating platform.

Given that its rashness has enlisted the support of the United States, Japan and the Philippines and has also caught the eye of some other countries, Hanoi has thus tried to play up the so-called Xisha Islands dispute by holding press conferences and listing heaps of specious historical and legal bases to boost its groundless claims.

How big an appetite on Earth does Vietnam have for the islands, reefs and natural resources in theSouth China Sea? How self-contradictory is Vietnam's fabricated "historical and legal evidence" which is full off laws?

Vietnam has presented to the international community an image of being weak while its vessels have intentionally crashed into China's vessels near the site of the Chinese oil rig. Those Hanoi sympathizers may have been blinded to the fact that Vietnam has claimed sovereignty over almost all the islands and reefs in the South China Sea. The 215 oil and gas blocks claimed by the Vietnamese government in the South China Sea are sufficient to expose Hanoi's ambitions for exclusive occupation of South China Sea resources and its impulse to turn the waters into the" sea of Vietnam".

The Xisha Islands were already included into the scope of China's sovereign jurisdiction at least by the 10th century. Even during the1930s, a time when China's national strength had fallen to an unprecedented weak position and during which China suffered from Japan's large-scale invasion, the Chinese government still filed protests against the illegal occupation of some of its South China Sea islands by the French colonial authorities. From 1934 to 1935, a committee was co-established by China's ministry of foreign affairs, ministry of internal affairs and naval headquarters. The committee made a special examination on various islands in the South China Sea, renamed the islands and reefs, and published an official map on which the Dongsha, Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands were explicitly marked as China's territory.

Japan usurped from China the Xisha Islands in 1939, but after Tokyo's surrender in 1945, in accordance with the Cairo Declaration and other binding international documents, the Chinese government recovered its sovereignty over a series of China's territories including the Xisha and Nansha islands "stolen" by Japan. The Chinese government sent a flotilla of warships to the Xisha Islands in November1946 and the Nansha Islands in December 1946 to take over the sovereignty of the islands and erecting some monuments on them. Some Chinese soldiers were also left on these islands for defense.

On September 4,1958, the government of the People's Republic of China issued a statement, declaring 12 nautical miles as its territorial sea, and made it explicit that "this provision applies to all of its territories, including its Dongsha, Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands as well as other islands whose sovereignty belongs to China".Following the statement, the Vietnamese prime minister Pham Van Dong sent a verbal note to Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, solemnly expressing that the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam" recognizes and endorses "the Chinese government's statement and "respects" such a decision by the Chinese government.

The said note is not the only evidence of the Vietnamese government's recognition of the Xisha Islands being part of China's territory through diplomatic or other official channels. During a meeting with the charge d'affaires of the Chinese embassy in Vietnam on June 15, 1956, the Vietnamese deputy foreign minister explicitly expressed that" from a historical perspective and based on the documents from the Vietnamese side, the Xisha Islands should belong to China's territory".

Following the drawing of a "theater of war" by the US government, the Vietnamese government issued a statement on May 9, 1965, saying that US president Lyndon Johnson's inclusion of "the entire Vietnam, 100 nautical miles off its coasts as well as some waters of the territorial sea of China's Xisha Islands" as the "theater of war" for the US armed forces, constitutes a direct threat to the security of Vietnam and its neighboring country. The above official stance of the Vietnamese government toward China's sovereignty over the Xisha Islands was also reflected in its official maps, newspapers, journals and textbooks. As a matter of fact, the Vietnamese government never changed this stance until its south-north reunification in 1975.

According to the principle of equitable estoppel of international law, the Vietnamese government cannot overturn its previous official stance on the sovereignty of the Xisha Islands. The attempt by the Vietnamese government to reinterpret Pham Van Dong's verbal note will be futile. On the one hand, the note is not the only official evidence of Vietnam's recognition of Xisha Islands as a part of China's territory. On the other hand, according to the principle of "the land dominates the sea", the right of sovereignty over the territorial sea of a coastal state originates from its sovereignty over its land or islands. Thus, Pham Van Dong's recognition and respect to China's 12-nautical miles territorial sea inevitably indicates its recognition and respect of China's sovereignty over the Xisha Islands.

The so-called dispute over the Xisha Islands has been completely concocted by Vietnam in the otherwise peaceful South China Sea. In recent years, the Vietnamese government has repeatedly claimed that "China occupied the Xisha Islands by force in 1974, which was an act of aggression and a violation of the UN Charter and the basic norms of international law". But China's self-defense against South Vietnam on the Xisha Islands in 1974 is not a remote episode whose truth should be known by everyone. Modern international law prohibits the unlawful use of force in resolving international disputes, but according to Article 51 of the UN Charter, a sovereign state has the right of self-defense to maintain its territorial integrity. China's self-defense against South Vietnam in 1974 came after its illegal attempt at occupation of China's Xisha Islands. The truth of this fact allows no distortion.

The Vietnamese government should not go back on its commitments on such big issues as territorial sovereignty. Otherwise, how can it build its national reputation in the international society?

It is now also time for Vietnam to account to China and the international society for its successive armed occupation of 29 islands and reefs affiliated to China's Nansha Islands since the 1970s , which is an obvious renegade of its own recognition of the Nansha Islands as a part of China's territory.

Related:

The Operation of the HYSY 981 Drilling Rig: Vietnam's Provocation and China's Position

Video: History of Chinese sovereignty over the Xisha Islands

HYSY 981 Drilling Rig: Vietnam's Provocation and China's Position

BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China's Foreign Ministry released an article about the HYSY 981 drilling rig in the Xisha Islands on its website on Sunday. The full text is as follows: Full story

China sends note to UN chief to clarify Xisha situation

UNITED NATIONS, June 9 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Monday sent a note to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, presenting documents making clear Vietnam's provocation and China's stance regarding the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea.

In the note, Wang Min, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, also asked Ban to circulate the documents, as UN General Assembly documents, among all UN member states.

 

[kankan326]

Vietnam, is a country that has cat body, but unfortunately with a lion heart. There gotta be a bad ending waiting for Vietnamese. Being used to a good small country is realistic and only choice for it. No big country like China in the world would allow to be treated by a weak neighbor in that way.

 

[xesy]

Vietnam fakes this Vietnam fakes that, but the damage is real. China hasn't been able to present any evidences so far yet you want to disaccount our vids and pics just by a few words? Has to try harder next time.

 

[EastSea]

Although it is unfortunate, it is true that many of the present day disputes are a legacy of Japanese invasion of Asia as well as of the US' mishandling of the post-war situation.

Japan may have liberated, indirectly, the region from Western colonizers (only to colonize for itself) but, the non-return of many islands occupied by Japan to their respective owners seems to be one of the main reasons for the tensions of the day.

And Japan (officially) does not even seem to recognize the harms it has done to the region and it still continues on the same route by serving the US interests and hoping for some rewards in return.

What happened to once a great nation?

Vietnam fooling no one in maritime dispute

BEIJING, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam should stop fabricating evidence and trying to renege on its recognition that Xisha Islands are part of China's sovereign territory, according to an article by a Chinese expert published on Friday.

Gong Yingchun, an associate professor of international Law at China Foreign Affairs University, said in the article that it is time for Vietnam to account to China and the international society for its successive armed occupation of 29 islands and reefs affiliated to China's Nansha Islands since the 1970s.

The following is the full text of the article, which is titled "Vietnam Fooling No One" and published on China Daily on Friday:

Continuous actions taken by Vietnam since early May disturbing the normal drilling of a Chinese oil rig in the waters off Zhongjian Island, which belongs to China's Xisha Islands, have compromised China's sovereignty, sovereign rights, right of jurisdiction and the safety of the operating platform.

Given that its rashness has enlisted the support of the United States, Japan and the Philippines and has also caught the eye of some other countries, Hanoi has thus tried to play up the so-called Xisha Islands dispute by holding press conferences and listing heaps of specious historical and legal bases to boost its groundless claims.

How big an appetite on Earth does Vietnam have for the islands, reefs and natural resources in theSouth China Sea? How self-contradictory is Vietnam's fabricated "historical and legal evidence" which is full off laws?

Vietnam has presented to the international community an image of being weak while its vessels have intentionally crashed into China's vessels near the site of the Chinese oil rig. Those Hanoi sympathizers may have been blinded to the fact that Vietnam has claimed sovereignty over almost all the islands and reefs in the South China Sea. The 215 oil and gas blocks claimed by the Vietnamese government in the South China Sea are sufficient to expose Hanoi's ambitions for exclusive occupation of South China Sea resources and its impulse to turn the waters into the" sea of Vietnam".

The Xisha Islands were already included into the scope of China's sovereign jurisdiction at least by the 10th century. Even during the1930s, a time when China's national strength had fallen to an unprecedented weak position and during which China suffered from Japan's large-scale invasion, the Chinese government still filed protests against the illegal occupation of some of its South China Sea islands by the French colonial authorities. From 1934 to 1935, a committee was co-established by China's ministry of foreign affairs, ministry of internal affairs and naval headquarters. The committee made a special examination on various islands in the South China Sea, renamed the islands and reefs, and published an official map on which the Dongsha, Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands were explicitly marked as China's territory.

Japan usurped from China the Xisha Islands in 1939, but after Tokyo's surrender in 1945, in accordance with the Cairo Declaration and other binding international documents, the Chinese government recovered its sovereignty over a series of China's territories including the Xisha and Nansha islands "stolen" by Japan. The Chinese government sent a flotilla of warships to the Xisha Islands in November1946 and the Nansha Islands in December 1946 to take over the sovereignty of the islands and erecting some monuments on them. Some Chinese soldiers were also left on these islands for defense.

On September 4,1958, the government of the People's Republic of China issued a statement, declaring 12 nautical miles as its territorial sea, and made it explicit that "this provision applies to all of its territories, including its Dongsha, Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands as well as other islands whose sovereignty belongs to China".Following the statement, the Vietnamese prime minister Pham Van Dong sent a verbal note to Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, solemnly expressing that the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam" recognizes and endorses "the Chinese government's statement and "respects" such a decision by the Chinese government.

The said note is not the only evidence of the Vietnamese government's recognition of the Xisha Islands being part of China's territory through diplomatic or other official channels. During a meeting with the charge d'affaires of the Chinese embassy in Vietnam on June 15, 1956, the Vietnamese deputy foreign minister explicitly expressed that" from a historical perspective and based on the documents from the Vietnamese side, the Xisha Islands should belong to China's territory".

Following the drawing of a "theater of war" by the US government, the Vietnamese government issued a statement on May 9, 1965, saying that US president Lyndon Johnson's inclusion of "the entire Vietnam, 100 nautical miles off its coasts as well as some waters of the territorial sea of China's Xisha Islands" as the "theater of war" for the US armed forces, constitutes a direct threat to the security of Vietnam and its neighboring country. The above official stance of the Vietnamese government toward China's sovereignty over the Xisha Islands was also reflected in its official maps, newspapers, journals and textbooks. As a matter of fact, the Vietnamese government never changed this stance until its south-north reunification in 1975.

According to the principle of equitable estoppel of international law, the Vietnamese government cannot overturn its previous official stance on the sovereignty of the Xisha Islands. The attempt by the Vietnamese government to reinterpret Pham Van Dong's verbal note will be futile. On the one hand, the note is not the only official evidence of Vietnam's recognition of Xisha Islands as a part of China's territory. On the other hand, according to the principle of "the land dominates the sea", the right of sovereignty over the territorial sea of a coastal state originates from its sovereignty over its land or islands. Thus, Pham Van Dong's recognition and respect to China's 12-nautical miles territorial sea inevitably indicates its recognition and respect of China's sovereignty over the Xisha Islands.

The so-called dispute over the Xisha Islands has been completely concocted by Vietnam in the otherwise peaceful South China Sea. In recent years, the Vietnamese government has repeatedly claimed that "China occupied the Xisha Islands by force in 1974, which was an act of aggression and a violation of the UN Charter and the basic norms of international law". But China's self-defense against South Vietnam on the Xisha Islands in 1974 is not a remote episode whose truth should be known by everyone. Modern international law prohibits the unlawful use of force in resolving international disputes, but according to Article 51 of the UN Charter, a sovereign state has the right of self-defense to maintain its territorial integrity. China's self-defense against South Vietnam in 1974 came after its illegal attempt at occupation of China's Xisha Islands. The truth of this fact allows no distortion.

The Vietnamese government should not go back on its commitments on such big issues as territorial sovereignty. Otherwise, how can it build its national reputation in the international society?

It is now also time for Vietnam to account to China and the international society for its successive armed occupation of 29 islands and reefs affiliated to China's Nansha Islands since the 1970s , which is an obvious renegade of its own recognition of the Nansha Islands as a part of China's territory.

Related:

The Operation of the HYSY 981 Drilling Rig: Vietnam's Provocation and China's Position

Video: History of Chinese sovereignty over the Xisha Islands

HYSY 981 Drilling Rig: Vietnam's Provocation and China's Position

BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) -- China's Foreign Ministry released an article about the HYSY 981 drilling rig in the Xisha Islands on its website on Sunday. The full text is as follows: Full story

China sends note to UN chief to clarify Xisha situation

UNITED NATIONS, June 9 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Monday sent a note to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, presenting documents making clear Vietnam's provocation and China's stance regarding the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea.

In the note, Wang Min, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, also asked Ban to circulate the documents, as UN General Assembly documents, among all UN member states.

by San Francisco conference on September 8, 1951, Vietnam State PM Tran Van Huu stated Islands belong to Vietnam. China's claim was rejected by voting.

China stop lying and lying.

 

[Rechoice]

Ancient records show Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa - Truong Sa
VietNamNet would like to introduce a series of articles on ancient documents proving Vietnam’s sovereignty over the archipelagos of Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly).

Part 1: The earliest records

The map of An Nam by French priest Jean-Louis Taberd.

Vietnam has the oldest historic documents about the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the world, starting from the early 17th century.

Hoang Sa was called by westerners as “Paracels” in the 19th century. Documents by Western researchers, missionaries and merchants all described Paracels as a series of islands, rocks and coral reefs along the central coast of Vietnam.

Until the 18th century and a long time after that, Vietnamese geographers and the western navigators did not distinguish Paracel as the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa as today.

For Vietnamese people, the name Hoang Sa, Bai Cat Vang, Dai Truong Sa or Van Ly Truong Sa referred to the islands stretching from the north to south East Sea. By early 20th century, the above names were still used. In royal document No. 10 in 1933 of King Bao Dai and the Ordinance No. 143 by President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1965, Hoang Sa (Paracels) was still used as the name for the both archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa.

Doctor of history Nguyen Nha and his European colleagues have discovered a very interesting detail: The Chinese in ancient and medieval ages were not interested in the sea. For them, the territory was called "江山" or "mountains and rivers", understood in the modern language as the mainland.

For the Vietnamese, territory had a broader sense, as “dat nuoc” (water and land) in Vietnamese. In the minds of the Vietnamese people, "dat nuoc" is a country including the mainland and islands.

However, the French were the first who distinguished the two archipelagos by two different names. The French’s historic documents show that Paracels or Hoang Sa is in the north and Spratley is in the south.

By the 1970s, the names of the two archipelagos were used uniformly and popularly.

In general, though the names are different, but in the ancient documents of Vietnam like “Dai Nam Thong Nhat Toan Do" (大南ー統全)(The Map of United Dai Nam), which was compiled in the Nguyen Dynasty in 1838 and “Bac Ky Hoi Do” (maps of the northern Vietnam), Hoang Sa and Truong Sa were drawn as a series of islands from north to south.

Hoang Sa - Truong Sa in feudal history

The map published in 1749 by western navigators (Carte des Costes de Cochinchine Tunquin) , with Hoang Sa as Vietnam's territory.

To date, the oldest document that provides the most detailed description of Hoang Sa is the book “Phu Bien Tap Luc” (Miscellaneous Chronicles of the Pacified Frontier, 1776) by well-known Vietnamese historian Le Quy Don. This is a six-volume Chinese-language geography. It is a detailed description of the Nguyen dynasty's territories in Thuan Hoa and Quang Nam Provinces, and covers the outlying areas such as Hoang Sa.

Page 78 b and 79 a read as follows: “An Vinh Commune, Binh Son District, Quang Ngai Prefecture has a mountain [5] outside its seaport called Re Island, which is 30-li wide. It takes four watches to reach the island, on which there is a ward named Tu Chinh with bean-growing inhabitants. Further offshore are the Dai Truong Sa Islands, where there are plenty of sea products and other goods. It takes the Hoang Sa Flotilla, founded to collect those products and goods; three full days to reach the islands, which are near Bac Hai.”

“… Bình Son District of Quang Ngai Prefecture includes the coastal commune of An Vinh. Offshore to the northeast of An Vinh are many islands and approximately 130 mountains separated by waters which can take from few watches to few days to travel across. Streams of fresh water can be found on these mountains. Within the islands is a 30-li long, flat and wide golden sand bank, on which the water is so transparent that one can see through. The islands have many swift nests and hundreds or thousands of other kinds of birds; they alight around instead of avoiding humans. There are many curios on the sandbank. Among the volutes are the Indian volutes. An Indian volute here can be as big as a mat; on their ventral side are opaque beads, different from pearls, and are as big as fingertips; their shells can be carved to make identification badges or calcined to provide lime for house construction. There are also conches that can be used for furniture inlay, and Babylon shells. All snails here can be salted for food. The sea turtles are oversized. There is a sea soft-shell turtle called “hai ba” or “trang bong”, similar to but smaller than the normal hawksbill sea turtles; their thin shell can be used for furniture inlay, and their thumb-sized eggs can be salted for food. There is a kind of sea cucumbers called “dot dot”, normally seen when swimming about the shore; they can be used as food after lime treatment, gut removal and drying. Before serving “dot dot”, one should process it with freshwater crab extract and scrape all the dirt off. It will be better if cooked with shrimps and pork.

He also wrote: “Foreign boats often take refuge in these islands to avoid storms. The Nguyen rulers have established Hoang Sa Flotilla with 70 sailors selected from An Vinh commune on a rotation basis. Selected sailors receive their order in the third month of every year, bring with them sufficient food for six months, and sail on five small fishing boats for three full days to reach the islands. Once settled down on the islands, they are free to catch as many birds and fish as they like. They collect goods from boats passing by, such as sabers, jewelries, money, porcelain rings, and fur; they also collect plenty of sea turtle shells, sea cucumbers, and volute shells. The sailors return to mainland in the eighth month through Eo Seaport. On their return trip, they first sail to Phu Xuan Citadel, where the goods that they have collected shall be submitted to be measured and classified; they can then take their parts of volutes, sea turtles, and sea cucumbers for their own trading businesses, and receive licenses before going home. The amount of collected materials varies; sometimes the sailors could not collect anything at all. I have personally checked the notebook of the former flotilla captain Thuyen Duc Hau, which recorded the amount of collected goods: 30 scoops of silver in the year of Nham Ngo (1762), 5,100 catties of tin in the year of Giap Than (1764), 126 scoops of silver in the year of At Dau (1765), a few sea turtle shells each year from the year of Ky Suu (1769) to the year of Quy Ty (1773). There were also years when only cubic tin, porcelain bowls, and two copper guns were collected.

The Nguyen rulers also established Bac Hai Flotilla without a fixed number of sailors, selected from Tu Chinh Village in Binh Thuan or from Canh Duong Commune. Sailors are selected on a voluntary basis. Those who volunteer to join the flotilla will be exempted from poll tax, patrol and transportation fees. These sailors travel in small fishing boats to Bac Hai, Con Lon Island, and other islands in Ha Tien area, collecting goods from ships, and sea products such as turtles, abalones, and sea cucumbers. Bac Hai Flotilla is under the command of Hoang Sa Flotilla. The collected items are mostly sea products and rarely include jewelries.”

To be continued…

Duy Chien

* The article uses research materials by Dr. Han Nguyen Nguyen Nha, founder and advisor of the Cultural Education Fund in HCM City.

 

[xesy]

Rechoice, please make a seperate topic about this. Or else it'll be drown by waves of Chinese and Vietnamese comments.

Ancient records show Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa - Truong Sa
VietNamNet would like to introduce a series of articles on ancient documents proving Vietnam’s sovereignty over the archipelagos of Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly).

Part 1: The earliest records

The map of An Nam by French priest Jean-Louis Taberd.

Vietnam has the oldest historic documents about the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the world, starting from the early 17th century.

Hoang Sa was called by westerners as “Paracels” in the 19th century. Documents by Western researchers, missionaries and merchants all described Paracels as a series of islands, rocks and coral reefs along the central coast of Vietnam.

Until the 18th century and a long time after that, Vietnamese geographers and the western navigators did not distinguish Paracel as the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa as today.

For Vietnamese people, the name Hoang Sa, Bai Cat Vang, Dai Truong Sa or Van Ly Truong Sa referred to the islands stretching from the north to south East Sea. By early 20th century, the above names were still used. In royal document No. 10 in 1933 of King Bao Dai and the Ordinance No. 143 by President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1965, Hoang Sa (Paracels) was still used as the name for the both archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa.

Doctor of history Nguyen Nha and his European colleagues have discovered a very interesting detail: The Chinese in ancient and medieval ages were not interested in the sea. For them, the territory was called "江山" or "mountains and rivers", understood in the modern language as the mainland.

For the Vietnamese, territory had a broader sense, as “dat nuoc” (water and land) in Vietnamese. In the minds of the Vietnamese people, "dat nuoc" is a country including the mainland and islands.

However, the French were the first who distinguished the two archipelagos by two different names. The French’s historic documents show that Paracels or Hoang Sa is in the north and Spratley is in the south.

By the 1970s, the names of the two archipelagos were used uniformly and popularly.

In general, though the names are different, but in the ancient documents of Vietnam like “Dai Nam Thong Nhat Toan Do" (大南ー統全)(The Map of United Dai Nam), which was compiled in the Nguyen Dynasty in 1838 and “Bac Ky Hoi Do” (maps of the northern Vietnam), Hoang Sa and Truong Sa were drawn as a series of islands from north to south.

Hoang Sa - Truong Sa in feudal history

The map published in 1749 by western navigators (Carte des Costes de Cochinchine Tunquin) , with Hoang Sa as Vietnam's territory.
To date, the oldest document that provides the most detailed description of Hoang Sa is the book “Phu Bien Tap Luc” (Miscellaneous Chronicles of the Pacified Frontier, 1776) by well-known Vietnamese historian Le Quy Don. This is a six-volume Chinese-language geography. It is a detailed description of the Nguyen dynasty's territories in Thuan Hoa and Quang Nam Provinces, and covers the outlying areas such as Hoang Sa.

Page 78 b and 79 a read as follows: “An Vinh Commune, Binh Son District, Quang Ngai Prefecture has a mountain [5] outside its seaport called Re Island, which is 30-li wide. It takes four watches to reach the island, on which there is a ward named Tu Chinh with bean-growing inhabitants. Further offshore are the Dai Truong Sa Islands, where there are plenty of sea products and other goods. It takes the Hoang Sa Flotilla, founded to collect those products and goods; three full days to reach the islands, which are near Bac Hai.”

“… Bình Son District of Quang Ngai Prefecture includes the coastal commune of An Vinh. Offshore to the northeast of An Vinh are many islands and approximately 130 mountains separated by waters which can take from few watches to few days to travel across. Streams of fresh water can be found on these mountains. Within the islands is a 30-li long, flat and wide golden sand bank, on which the water is so transparent that one can see through. The islands have many swift nests and hundreds or thousands of other kinds of birds; they alight around instead of avoiding humans. There are many curios on the sandbank. Among the volutes are the Indian volutes. An Indian volute here can be as big as a mat; on their ventral side are opaque beads, different from pearls, and are as big as fingertips; their shells can be carved to make identification badges or calcined to provide lime for house construction. There are also conches that can be used for furniture inlay, and Babylon shells. All snails here can be salted for food. The sea turtles are oversized. There is a sea soft-shell turtle called “hai ba” or “trang bong”, similar to but smaller than the normal hawksbill sea turtles; their thin shell can be used for furniture inlay, and their thumb-sized eggs can be salted for food. There is a kind of sea cucumbers called “dot dot”, normally seen when swimming about the shore; they can be used as food after lime treatment, gut removal and drying. Before serving “dot dot”, one should process it with freshwater crab extract and scrape all the dirt off. It will be better if cooked with shrimps and pork.

He also wrote: “Foreign boats often take refuge in these islands to avoid storms. The Nguyen rulers have established Hoang Sa Flotilla with 70 sailors selected from An Vinh commune on a rotation basis. Selected sailors receive their order in the third month of every year, bring with them sufficient food for six months, and sail on five small fishing boats for three full days to reach the islands. Once settled down on the islands, they are free to catch as many birds and fish as they like. They collect goods from boats passing by, such as sabers, jewelries, money, porcelain rings, and fur; they also collect plenty of sea turtle shells, sea cucumbers, and volute shells. The sailors return to mainland in the eighth month through Eo Seaport. On their return trip, they first sail to Phu Xuan Citadel, where the goods that they have collected shall be submitted to be measured and classified; they can then take their parts of volutes, sea turtles, and sea cucumbers for their own trading businesses, and receive licenses before going home. The amount of collected materials varies; sometimes the sailors could not collect anything at all. I have personally checked the notebook of the former flotilla captain Thuyen Duc Hau, which recorded the amount of collected goods: 30 scoops of silver in the year of Nham Ngo (1762), 5,100 catties of tin in the year of Giap Than (1764), 126 scoops of silver in the year of At Dau (1765), a few sea turtle shells each year from the year of Ky Suu (1769) to the year of Quy Ty (1773). There were also years when only cubic tin, porcelain bowls, and two copper guns were collected.

The Nguyen rulers also established Bac Hai Flotilla without a fixed number of sailors, selected from Tu Chinh Village in Binh Thuan or from Canh Duong Commune. Sailors are selected on a voluntary basis. Those who volunteer to join the flotilla will be exempted from poll tax, patrol and transportation fees. These sailors travel in small fishing boats to Bac Hai, Con Lon Island, and other islands in Ha Tien area, collecting goods from ships, and sea products such as turtles, abalones, and sea cucumbers. Bac Hai Flotilla is under the command of Hoang Sa Flotilla. The collected items are mostly sea products and rarely include jewelries.”

To be continued…

Duy Chien

* The article uses research materials by Dr. Han Nguyen Nguyen Nha, founder and advisor of the Cultural Education Fund in HCM City.

 

[kankan326]

Ancient records show Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa - Truong Sa
VietNamNet would like to introduce a series of articles on ancient documents proving Vietnam’s sovereignty over the archipelagos of Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly).

Part 1: The earliest records

The map of An Nam by French priest Jean-Louis Taberd.

Vietnam has the oldest historic documents about the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the world, starting from the early 17th century.

Hoang Sa was called by westerners as “Paracels” in the 19th century. Documents by Western researchers, missionaries and merchants all described Paracels as a series of islands, rocks and coral reefs along the central coast of Vietnam.

Until the 18th century and a long time after that, Vietnamese geographers and the western navigators did not distinguish Paracel as the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa as today.

For Vietnamese people, the name Hoang Sa, Bai Cat Vang, Dai Truong Sa or Van Ly Truong Sa referred to the islands stretching from the north to south East Sea. By early 20th century, the above names were still used. In royal document No. 10 in 1933 of King Bao Dai and the Ordinance No. 143 by President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1965, Hoang Sa (Paracels) was still used as the name for the both archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa.

Doctor of history Nguyen Nha and his European colleagues have discovered a very interesting detail: The Chinese in ancient and medieval ages were not interested in the sea. For them, the territory was called "江山" or "mountains and rivers", understood in the modern language as the mainland.

For the Vietnamese, territory had a broader sense, as “dat nuoc” (water and land) in Vietnamese. In the minds of the Vietnamese people, "dat nuoc" is a country including the mainland and islands.

However, the French were the first who distinguished the two archipelagos by two different names. The French’s historic documents show that Paracels or Hoang Sa is in the north and Spratley is in the south.

By the 1970s, the names of the two archipelagos were used uniformly and popularly.

In general, though the names are different, but in the ancient documents of Vietnam like “Dai Nam Thong Nhat Toan Do" (大南ー統全)(The Map of United Dai Nam), which was compiled in the Nguyen Dynasty in 1838 and “Bac Ky Hoi Do” (maps of the northern Vietnam), Hoang Sa and Truong Sa were drawn as a series of islands from north to south.

Hoang Sa - Truong Sa in feudal history

The map published in 1749 by western navigators (Carte des Costes de Cochinchine Tunquin) , with Hoang Sa as Vietnam's territory.
To date, the oldest document that provides the most detailed description of Hoang Sa is the book “Phu Bien Tap Luc” (Miscellaneous Chronicles of the Pacified Frontier, 1776) by well-known Vietnamese historian Le Quy Don. This is a six-volume Chinese-language geography. It is a detailed description of the Nguyen dynasty's territories in Thuan Hoa and Quang Nam Provinces, and covers the outlying areas such as Hoang Sa.

Page 78 b and 79 a read as follows: “An Vinh Commune, Binh Son District, Quang Ngai Prefecture has a mountain [5] outside its seaport called Re Island, which is 30-li wide. It takes four watches to reach the island, on which there is a ward named Tu Chinh with bean-growing inhabitants. Further offshore are the Dai Truong Sa Islands, where there are plenty of sea products and other goods. It takes the Hoang Sa Flotilla, founded to collect those products and goods; three full days to reach the islands, which are near Bac Hai.”

“… Bình Son District of Quang Ngai Prefecture includes the coastal commune of An Vinh. Offshore to the northeast of An Vinh are many islands and approximately 130 mountains separated by waters which can take from few watches to few days to travel across. Streams of fresh water can be found on these mountains. Within the islands is a 30-li long, flat and wide golden sand bank, on which the water is so transparent that one can see through. The islands have many swift nests and hundreds or thousands of other kinds of birds; they alight around instead of avoiding humans. There are many curios on the sandbank. Among the volutes are the Indian volutes. An Indian volute here can be as big as a mat; on their ventral side are opaque beads, different from pearls, and are as big as fingertips; their shells can be carved to make identification badges or calcined to provide lime for house construction. There are also conches that can be used for furniture inlay, and Babylon shells. All snails here can be salted for food. The sea turtles are oversized. There is a sea soft-shell turtle called “hai ba” or “trang bong”, similar to but smaller than the normal hawksbill sea turtles; their thin shell can be used for furniture inlay, and their thumb-sized eggs can be salted for food. There is a kind of sea cucumbers called “dot dot”, normally seen when swimming about the shore; they can be used as food after lime treatment, gut removal and drying. Before serving “dot dot”, one should process it with freshwater crab extract and scrape all the dirt off. It will be better if cooked with shrimps and pork.

He also wrote: “Foreign boats often take refuge in these islands to avoid storms. The Nguyen rulers have established Hoang Sa Flotilla with 70 sailors selected from An Vinh commune on a rotation basis. Selected sailors receive their order in the third month of every year, bring with them sufficient food for six months, and sail on five small fishing boats for three full days to reach the islands. Once settled down on the islands, they are free to catch as many birds and fish as they like. They collect goods from boats passing by, such as sabers, jewelries, money, porcelain rings, and fur; they also collect plenty of sea turtle shells, sea cucumbers, and volute shells. The sailors return to mainland in the eighth month through Eo Seaport. On their return trip, they first sail to Phu Xuan Citadel, where the goods that they have collected shall be submitted to be measured and classified; they can then take their parts of volutes, sea turtles, and sea cucumbers for their own trading businesses, and receive licenses before going home. The amount of collected materials varies; sometimes the sailors could not collect anything at all. I have personally checked the notebook of the former flotilla captain Thuyen Duc Hau, which recorded the amount of collected goods: 30 scoops of silver in the year of Nham Ngo (1762), 5,100 catties of tin in the year of Giap Than (1764), 126 scoops of silver in the year of At Dau (1765), a few sea turtle shells each year from the year of Ky Suu (1769) to the year of Quy Ty (1773). There were also years when only cubic tin, porcelain bowls, and two copper guns were collected.

The Nguyen rulers also established Bac Hai Flotilla without a fixed number of sailors, selected from Tu Chinh Village in Binh Thuan or from Canh Duong Commune. Sailors are selected on a voluntary basis. Those who volunteer to join the flotilla will be exempted from poll tax, patrol and transportation fees. These sailors travel in small fishing boats to Bac Hai, Con Lon Island, and other islands in Ha Tien area, collecting goods from ships, and sea products such as turtles, abalones, and sea cucumbers. Bac Hai Flotilla is under the command of Hoang Sa Flotilla. The collected items are mostly sea products and rarely include jewelries.”

To be continued…

Duy Chien

* The article uses research materials by Dr. Han Nguyen Nguyen Nha, founder and advisor of the Cultural Education Fund in HCM City.

Were those french or westerners God? Before they left Europe and came to Asia, Chinese had found the islands for thousands years. Chinese fishermen were finishing there for thousands years. Why would we care when those Europeans found the islands. It means nothing.

 

[xesy]

Were those french or westerners God? Before they left Europe and came to Asia, Chinese had found the islands for thousands years. Chinese fishermen were finishing there for thousands years. Why would we care when those Europeans found the islands. It means nothing.

China says that ancient Vietnamese claims of Paracels and Spartly are in fact different islands. These maps show the exact opposite, ancient Vietnamese in fact acknowledged and claimed the right islands. Also Vietnam has Westerners to prove their traditional activities around these islands, while China has only vague historical facts and a sunken ship.

 

[kankan326]

China says that ancient Vietnamese claims of Paracels and Spartly are in fact different islands. These maps show the exact opposite, ancient Vietnamese in fact acknowledged and claimed the right islands. Also Vietnam has Westerners to prove their traditional activities around these islands, while China has only vague historical facts and a sunken ship.

"China has only vague historical facts". Are you kidding me? Ancient Chinese were familiar with SCS just like their back yards. In Song dynasty, South China Sea was called "Silk Way on Sea". It was actually a very busy trade route. And every historian knows this name---Zheng He, a great Chinese navigator in Ming dynasty. How could he do this if SCS was a vague concept for him.

 

[xesy]

"China has only vague historical facts". Are you kidding me? Ancient Chinese were familiar with SCS just like their back yards. In Song dynasty, South China Sea was called "Silk Way on Sea". It was actually a very busy trade route. And every historian knows this name---Zheng He, a great Chinese navigator in Ming dynasty. How could he did this if SCS was a vague concept for him.

Uhm, crossing a water does not make that water yours. And I never said anything like China didn't cross the SCS. By vague history I only mean that China claims ancient Chinese dysnasty controled and regularly presented on the vacinity of Paracels and Spartly.

 

[OCguy]

Original link doesn't seem to work for me.

But the Chinese PR machine is running overtime these days. I wish the Chinese people had full access to non-government propaganda information from around the world.

 

[TaiShang]

But the Chinese PR machine is running overtime these days. I wish the Chinese people had full access to non-government propaganda information from around the world.

Wish that for your corporate media-fed people.

Talking about propaganda, the head of propaganda these days calls himself the president of the US.

 

[xesy]

Original link doesn't seem to work for me.

But the Chinese PR machine is running overtime these days. I wish the Chinese people had full access to non-government propaganda information from around the world.

See, I just waited a minute before commenting you and a Chinese member jumped in and said what I was thinking. Somehow most Chinese members here believe that the world is spoon-fed with Western propaganda against China.

 

[kankan326]

Uhm, crossing a water does not make that water yours. And I never said anything like China didn't cross the SCS. By vague history I only mean that China claims ancient Chinese dysnasty controled and regularly presented on the vacinity of Paracels and Spartly.

when Chinese crossed and fished in SCS again and again, Vietnamese could barely leave their coast. How could explorers had vaguer facts than indoormen?

 

[OCguy]

Wish that for your corporate media-fed people.

Talking about propaganda, the head of propaganda these days calls himself the president of the US.

Getting to hear from many viewpoints, and making up your own mind, is a great freedom. Seeing and hearing only what your government wants you to is not a system that belongs in the 21st Century.

If the US president says something that isn't true, there will be 10,000 articles and blog posts calling him out on it in the US alone. Propaganda isn't the problem, since you are correct, it exists in every country. The problem is not having the access to the outside information that lets the population know what is propaganda and what isn't.