(VOVWORLD) - China has recently expanded its illegal claims in the East Sea (internationally known as the South Chin Sea) by announcing the establishment of two districts in Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago. This action flouts international law, violates Vietnam’s sovereignty and indisputable sovereign rights over the two archipelagoes, threatens peace, undermines cooperation between countries, and tarnishes China’s image in the region.
As countries around the world are struggling to contain the COVID-19 epidemic, China has used the crisis as cover for an irresponsible act that destabilizes the region.
Repeated violations
The Chinese survey vessel Haiyang 8 and its escorts violated Vietnam’s territorial waters for more than 100 days in 2019. Chinese vessels also violated the waters of Malaysia and the Philippines. In late 2019 and early 2020 Chinese ships violated the waters of Indonesia. And early this month a Chinese coast guard vessel struck and sank a Vietnamese fishing boat.
Invalid claims
On Friday, China once again violated the sovereignty of other countries when its Ministry of Civil Affairs announced that the State Council of China has approved the establishment of what they call the districts of “Xisha” and “Nansha” in “Sansha city”, Hainan province.
China claims that the so-called “Xisha district” administers islands in the Xisha archipelago—its name for Vietnam’s Hoang Sa archipelago, the Macclesfield Bank, and adjacent waters via the "Xisha government" on Phu Lam island, the largest of the Paracel Islands.
"Nansha district", it claims, administers the Nansha archipelago—its name for Vietnam’s Truong Sa archipelago—and adjacent waters via the "Nansha government" on Fiery Cross reef, which China recently militarized.
China’s claims are legally invalid. China has no sovereign rights over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos. Vietnam has repeatedly affirmed its sovereignty over those two archipelagoes. In a diplomatic note to the UN on March 30, 2020, the Vietnamese government reaffirmed that Vietnam has sufficient historical evidence and legal foundation to assert its sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes in line with international law.
Vietnam considers the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) the sole legal basis that comprehensively and unequivocally stipulates the limits of rights to the waters between Vietnam and China. According to UNCLOS, Vietnam has longstanding sovereignty over the two archipelagoes and its rights are proven by historical and legal evidence.
China’s occupation by force of all of Hoang Sa archipelago and 7 structures in Truong Sa archipelago violated international law and the UN Charter. In 1970 UN General Assembly Resolution 2625 specifically banned the use of force to violate the territorial integrity of other countries. China, who currently occupies the seized structures, has no legal sovereignty over them.
China’s latest move clearly demonstrates its undisguised desire to monopolize the East Sea. Its actions have been loudly condemned by the international community.