What is the overview of Nansha Islands?

The Nansha Islands and its neighboring waters are located in the southern part of the South China Sea, with its sea area ranging from 3°25′-12°10′ north latitude and 108°15′-119°00′ east longitude. Among them, Taiping Island has an area of about 0.43km2; other islands with an area of more than 0.1km2 include Zhongye Island, Xiyue Island, Nanwei Island, Nanzi Island and Beizi Island. The highest altitude island, Hongxiao, is only 6.2 m2. As early as the Han Dynasty, the Chinese people discovered the islands in the South China Sea in their navigation and production, and collectively called them Saitou. In the fifth year of the Tang Dynasty (789), the Nansha Islands, then known as "Miles of Changsha" and "Thousands of Miles of Shitang", were included in the map of China, and the Song Dynasty already had administrative jurisdiction over the region.

After the Second World War, according to the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, the Chinese government recovered Taiping Island, the largest island in the Nansha Islands in 1946, and at the beginning of 1947, the Department of Square Areas of the Ministry of the Interior of the Chinese government compiled and published the "Outline of the Position of the South China Sea Islands" and for the first time indicated the maritime boundary line (the line of the South China Sea) in the form of nine arcs with intermittent lines (the line of the South China Sea, the line of the South China Sea). The map was published in early 1947, and for the first time, nine curved intermittent lines were used to indicate the maritime boundaries of the South China Sea (now known as the traditional maritime boundaries).

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, China reaffirmed its territorial sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and the surrounding waters on several occasions. The territorial extent of the South China Sea is clearly marked on China's political maps in the form of the traditional maritime boundary line.

The Nansha Islands have been China's sacred territory since ancient times and have been recognized and widely supported by the international community.

In June 1956, Vietnam's Foreign Minister Yong Van Khiem said, "According to information from the Vietnamese side, historically, the Xisha and Nansha Islands should belong to Chinese territory." Le Loc, Director of the Asian Department of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, was even more explicit: "Historically, the Xisha and Nansha Islands have belonged to China as early as the Song Dynasty".

In 1987, UNESCO asked the Chinese government to set up a permanent marine hydrographic observatory in the Spratlys to provide marine hydrographic information to passing ships.

But since 1968, and especially since the 1970s, neighboring countries*** have encroached on 44 islands and reefs in China's Spratlys and stationed troops, facilities and settlements on some of the islands and reefs they have occupied.

In 1988, China reclaimed six islands and reefs, including Zhubi Reef, Nanlun Reef, Dongmen Reef, Chigua Reef, Yongshu Reef and Huayang Reef, and in 1995, China recovered Meiji Reef.

July 31, 1995, Qian Qichen, vice premier and foreign minister, once again reiterated that "the Nansha Islands are not unclaimed islands and reefs, and China has always had indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their waters. There was no dispute until the 1970s."

Seismic surveys of the waters around the Spratlys began in 1955, drilling began in 1957, and the first offshore oil field was discovered in 1962 in the Temana formation in the Balinjian Depression. Up to now, foreign oil companies have completed 122×104km of seismic lines and 1,323 oil drilling wells (excluding development wells) in the Nansha Sea, achieving a large number of important oil and gas exploration results, and the neighboring countries have gained huge economic benefits from the development of oil and gas in the Nansha Sea.

It can be seen that the situation of China's Nansha islands and reefs being encroached upon, waters being divided, resources being plundered and sovereignty being trampled on is very serious.

In the face of the complex situation of the Nansha Islands, our government advocates that disputes over the territorial and resource rights and interests of the Nansha Islands and their waters be resolved within the framework of the United Nations Law of the Sea, in a peaceful manner, and with the approach of ****same development.