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Evidences show China's sovereignty over Huangyan Island

China.org

By Li Xiaohua and Xu Lin
May 11, 2012

According to internationally accepted guidelines, there are two factors to be judged that could prove a country's sovereignty over a territory: the historical basis and the legal basis, and the two are inseparable to each other. There are many international laws and regulations concerning territorial sovereignty, whose applications were based on historical facts.

From ancient times to the present, China's absolute territorial sovereignty over Huangyan Island has been well supported by historical records and international laws, according to a report in the People's Liberation Army Daily yesterday. It should be noted that the series of schemes and contradictory statements by the Philippines in fact demonstrate its guilty conscience in making its claims.

Evidence One

China was first to discover Huangyan Island.

A number of ancient Chinese documents show that as far as 2,000 years ago, Chinese ancestors first discovered and gave names to the South China Sea islands, including Huangyan. From Song to Ming and Qing dynasties, China renamed the South China Sea islands as "Shitang" and "Changsha," which included Zhongsha Islands, to which Huangyan Island belonged.

Li Guoqiang, deputy director of Chinese Borderland History and Geography Research Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that in the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Kubla Khan, to unify and standardize the national calendar, ordered the Chinese stargazer Guo Shoujing to conduct time measurements from various locations in the country. At that time, Huangyan Island was selected as one of the measuring locations, which was clearly documented in historical records.

Evidence Two

China has had long-term use and development of Huangyan Island.

The waters of Huangyan Island have always been fishing grounds for Chinese fishermen, who built docks and other fishery facilities there. Besides, the Chinese government has repeatedly deployed scientific expeditions on the island. Researchers from the South China Sea Institute of Oceanography landed on the island twice in October 1977 and in June 1978. In April 1985, the South China Sea Branch of the State Oceanic Administration conducted its comprehensive survey of the island and erected a one-meter-tall concrete monument.

Evidence Three

China was first to include Huangyan Island into its territory, implementing its sovereign jurisdiction.

Judged from a legal perspective, an important basis for China's sovereignty over Huangyan Island is China's long-term exercise of effective jurisdiction over the island. The time measurements conducted on Huangyan during the Yuan Dynasty, as an official act of the ruling body, was symbolic of China's sovereignty over Huangyan Island.

Li Hongyun, deputy director of the Marine Research Center, Peking University, said in an interview with the PLA Daily that first and foremost, the Chinese government formally announced the name of the Huangyan Island in 1935, 1947 and 1983. Secondly, different dynasties all included Huangyan Island as Chinese territory in their official maps. Thirdly, administratively, Huangyan Island has been continuously under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province or Hainan Province. Presently, Huangyan Island was under the administrative jurisdiction of the Office of Xisha, Nansha and Zhongsha Islands Affairs, Hainan Province. Finally, since the 1970s, the Chinese government has accepted and ratified hosts of applications for expedition on Huangyan Island made by many amateur radio enthusiasts from outside China.

"Approval of applications and the administrative jurisdiction are totally official and governmental acts, which directly prove China's exercising of jurisdiction over Huangyan Island," Li Hongyun said in a statement.

Evidence 4

Huangyan Island is outside of Philippine borders according to international treaties

Due to historical reasons, the composition and scope of the Philippine territory were regulated by a number of international treaties.

According to Zhang Haiwen, vice director of China Institute for Marine Affairs (CIMA), the Treaty of Paris (1898) between the U.S. and Spain, the Treaty of Washington (1900) between the U.S. and Spain and the Treaty between Great Britain and the U.S. (1930) all defined that the western border of the Philippine territory is 118 degrees 0 minutes east longitude, while Huangyan Island is at 117 degrees 51 minutes east longitude, which is obviously outside the defined Philippine border.

In addition, Zhang said the U.S.-Philippine Military Bases Agreement (1947), the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty (1952), the Republic Act No. 3046 of the Philippines (1961) (an act to define the baselines of the territorial sea of the Philippines) and the 1968 Act to Amend Section One of Republic Act No. 3046, reaffirmed the legal authority of the above-mentioned three treaties and once again defined the Philippine territorial borders which had not included Huangyan Island.

Evidence 5

Huangyan Island was not included in the Philippine official maps for a long period of time

"For a long period of time, the legal documents, official documents and maps of the Philippines didn't include Huangyan Island," Li Guoqiang said. In the domestic laws and regulations of the Philippines including the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines, the Philippine government repeatedly confirmed its territory scope. Huangyan Island was excluded from its announced territory, and the country's base points and baselines of the territorial sea also did not include the island.

The official maps of the Philippines published in 1981 and 1984 also indicated that Huangyan Island is outside the Philippine borders. Until 1997, the Philippines had never interposed any objection to China's sovereignty over the island, and even confirmed the island outside the Philippines for a number of times.

The documents issued by the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority of the Philippines and the Philippine Amateur Radio Association to the American Radio Relay League on October 18 and November 18, 1994, also respectively confirmed that the Philippine borders and sovereignty were stipulated by the Article 3 of the Treaty of Paris (1898), and Huangyan Island is outside of the Philippines' territory boundaries.

Evidence 6

The Philippine territorial claim has no legal basis

The Philippines has claimed that Huangyan Island is within its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, so it should be its "inseparable territory". However, according to Li Hongyun, a basic rule of the international law is that "the land dominates the sea," which means that a country should have the sovereignty of a land first, and then may claim the sovereignty of the sea near the land. This rule is found in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Recently, the Philippines claimed sovereignty to Huangyan Island on the grounds of having jurisdiction over the island by using the case of the Palmas Island. The adjudication of this case interpreted such an international rule: If a country performed jurisdiction over a land effectively for a long period of time, this country gets the sovereignty to this territory. Li Hongyun said: "We don't have any objection to the rule." China has performed jurisdiction over Huangyan Island, effectively and for a long period of time, so China should have the sovereignty to the island.

Moreover, the Philippines' claim on the grounds of geographical proximity cannot stand either. Practices based on international laws have shown that geographical proximity is not the principle of solving territorial disputes. There are a lot of examples in the world that a part of a country's territory locates near another country. Many other countries might need to redraw their borders if this rule is to superseded all other factors.