BEIJING REJECTS CRITICISM OF S.CHINA SEA DRILLS

 

 

 

REJECTS CRITICISM OF S.CHINA SEA DRILLS 

 

China rejected criticism by the U.S. Defence Department of its plan to hold military exercise in the South China Sea

Five days of drills near the Paracel Islands, claimed by both Vietnam and China

Paracel Islands are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea

The archipelago includes about 130 small coral islands and reefs, most grouped into the northeast Amphitrite Group or the western Crescent Group

The archipelago includes Dragon Hole, the deepest underwater sinkhole in the world

The largest island of the Paracels, Woody Island

Taking 16°40′N 112°20′E as the centre of the Paracel Islands, then the Amphitrite Group is ENE, and the Crescent Group is West

The name 'Paracel' is found in the first Portuguese maps of the region

Amphitrite group was named after the French frigate Amphitrite, which observed the islands while carrying a Jesuit mission to Canton in 1698–1700

The islands were first scientifically surveyed by Daniel Ross of the British East India Company in 1808. The names of Duncan, Drummond, Money, Pattle and Roberts islands were all chosen in honour of senior figures in the East India Company

After the 1884–1885 Sino-French War, France officially gained control of Annam and Tonkin as protectorates and fully established French colonial rule in Vietnam

Article 2 of the Treaty of Tientsin (1885) forced China to stop any claims to suzerainty all over Vietnam. Therefore, the French also took over the control of the Paracel Islands which were under the Nguyễn dynasty's administration, still nominally ruled Annam at the time

In 1933, France seized the Paracels and Spratlys, announced their annexation, formally included them in French Indochina

In 1941, the Japanese Empire made the Paracel and Spratly islands part of Taiwan, then under its rule

After the communists gained control of China in 1949, they occupied Woody Island

By 1955 South Vietnam had taken possession of the Crescent Group

Battle of the Paracel Islands in January 1974, PRC expelled the South Vietnamese from the Paracel Islands

South Vietnam's claim to the islands was inherited by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam which has ruled all of Vietnam since 1976

In July 2012, China (PRC) declared a city named Sansha, under Hainan Province, as administering the area

On July 12, 2016, an arbitral tribunal under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague backed the Philippines in an arbitration proceedings against China's claim on the territories within the "nine-dash line" which include the Paracel Islands, saying that it is unlawful under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The tribunal argued that there was no evidence that China had historically exercised exclusive control over the waters or resources, hence there was "no legal basis for China to claim historic rights" over the nine-dash line.