Why does Vietnam claim there is a Xisha Islands dispute?
- By Lu Yang
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II. Vietnam’s Claims of Sovereignty over China’s Xisha Islands are Contradictory
Prior to 1974, no Vietnamese government had ever challenged China’s sovereignty over the Xisha Islands. Vietnam had officially recognized the Xisha Islands as part of China’s territory. This position was reflected in its government statements and diplomatic notes as well as its newspapers, maps and textbooks.
During a meeting with the chargé d’affaires ad interim Li Zhimin of the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam on 15 June 1956, Vice Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam Ung Van Khiem solemnly stated that, “according to Vietnamese data, the Xisha Islands and Nansha Islands are historically part of Chinese territory.” Le Loc, Acting Director of the Asian Department of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, who was present, specifically cited Vietnamese data and pointed out that, “judging from history, these islands were already part of China at the time of the Song Dynasty.”
On 4 September 1958, the Chinese government issued a declaration, stating that the breadth of the territorial waters of the People’s Republic of China shall be 12 nautical miles and making it clear that “this provision applies to all the territories of the People’s Republic of China, including ... the Xisha Islands”. On 14 September, Premier Pham Van Dong of the government of Vietnam sent a diplomatic note to Premier Zhou Enlai of the State Council of China, solemnly stating that “the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam recognizes and supports the declaration of the government of the People’s Republic of China on its decision concerning China’s territorial sea made on September 4, 1958” and “the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam respects this decision”.
On 9 May 1965, the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam issued a statement with reference to the designation by the U.S. government of the “combat zone” of the U.S. armed forces in Vietnam. It says, “U.S. President Lyndon Johnson designated the whole of Vietnam, and the adjacent waters which extend roughly 100 miles from the coast of Vietnam and part of the territorial waters of the People’s Republic of China in its Xisha Islands as ‘combat zone’ of the United States armed forces ... in direct threat to the security of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and its neighbors ...” .
The World Atlas printed in May 1972 by the Bureau of Survey and Cartography under the Office of the Premier of Vietnam designated the Xisha Islands by their Chinese names rather than the so-called “Hoang Sa Archipelago”. The geography textbook for ninth graders published by Vietnam’s Educational Press in 1974 carried in it a lesson entitled “The People’s Republic of China” . It reads, “The chain of islands from the Nansha and Xisha Islands to Hainan Island, Taiwan Island, the Penghu Islands and the Zhoushan Islands ... are shaped like a bow and constitute a Great Wall defending the China mainland.”
But now the Vietnamese government has gone back on its word by making territorial claims on China’s Xisha Islands. From China’s perspective, that is a violation of the principles of international law, including the principle of estoppel, and the basic norms governing international relations.
It is up to the Vietnamese government to explain why it changed its position.
Lu Yang is a Beijing-based scholar in international relations.
This article was first published at Chinausfocus.com To see the original version please visit http://www.chinausfocus.com/peace-security/a-china-academics-response-to-vietnams-xisha-islands-claims/
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