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Thayer Consultancy Background Brief

ABN # 65 648 097 123
45th Anniversary of China’s
Attack on the Republic of Viet
Nam’s Paracel Islands
January 17, 2019

January 18/January 19 mark the forty-fifth anniversary of China’s illegal invasion of
the Republic of Vietnam’s Paracel Islands. We request your historical and legal
assessment of this issue and Vietnam’s claim to sovereignty.
ANSWER: Vietnam’s claims to features (islands, rocks and low-tide elevations) in the
Paracel archipelago (Hoang Sa Dao) date to the pre-colonial era. The Paracels
comprise two island groups, the Amphitrite in the east and Crescent in the west. In
the first half of the seventeenth century the ruling Nguyen Lords commissioned a
small naval flotilla known as the Hoang Sa Brigade (Doi Hoang Sa) to sail to the
present-day Paracel islands on an annual - and later intermittent - basis. The Hoang
Sa Brigade comprised between five and eight boats with a crew of seventy men
recruited from present day Quang Ngai province.
The Hoang Sa Brigade ordinarily spent up to five months carrying out mapping,
hydrographic surveys, erecting markers, fishing, planting trees, and recovering the
cargo from merchant ships that had run aground. During the first half of the
eighteenth century the Nguyen Lords also organized the North Sea Brigade (Doi Bac
Hai) to carry out the same mission in the Spratly islands (Truong Sa Dao) The North
Sea Brigade was under the command of the Hoang Sa Brigade.
Vietnam was reunified in 1802 under the rule of the Nguyen Dynasty and was known
as the Kingdom of An Nam. Emperor Gia Long (1802-1820) dispatched the Hoang Sa
Brigade to the Paracels during the early years of his reign but this was suspended
subsequently. In 1816, Emperor Gia Long formally took possession of the Paracels.
His successor, Emperor Minh Mang (1820-1841), ordered the Royal Navy to conduct
navigational surveys, plant stone stele, and construct a temple the Paracels in 1835.
In 1884, the Kingdom of Annam and France signed a treaty under which An Nam
became a protectorate. France assumed responsibility for An Nam’s external affairs,
including defending the Kingdom’s territorial integrity and sovereignty claims over
the Paracels. In 1925 and 1927, France conducted surveys and naval patrols in the
Paracel Islands. In 1931 and 1932, France protested to the Government of China on
behalf of the Kingdom of An Nam when authorities in Guangdong province called for
bids to exploit guano in the Paracel islands. During the 1920s and 1930s French Navy
warships and Customs vessels made frequent visits to the Paracels.
French forces were stationed in the Spratly Islands from 1930-33. The French
Institute of Oceanography in Nha Trang carried out scientific surveys in this period as
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well. In 1933, France incorporated the Spratly Islands into Ba Ria province for
administrative purposes. In 1938, the Paracels Islands were declared an
administrative unit of Thua Thien province. France constructed a lighthouse, a
meteorological post and a radio station on Pattle Island in the Crescent group in the
Paracels as well as similar facilities in the Spratlys.
French authority was eclipsed briefly during the Second World War when Japan
occupied French Indochina including the Paracel and Spratly Islands. In 1947, French
authority was restored in Indochina and French armed forces returned to the Spratly
islands and resumed meteorological services in the Paracels.
In 1949, the Kingdom of Vietnam became the State of Vietnam and a member of the
French Union. The following year France officially handed over administration of the
Paracels to the State of Vietnam under Emperor Bao Dai. Also, in 1950, the People’s
Republic of China (PRC) occupied the Amphitrite group in the eastern Paracels
following the withdrawal of the Republic of China (Nationalist China). In 1951, at the
San Francisco Peace Conference, the head of the State of Vietnam delegation
affirmed Vietnam’s “right to the Spratly and Paracel Islands, which have always
belonged to Vietnam.” No objections were recorded.
Between 1946 and 1954, Vietnamese communist forces fought a war for
independence against France. A cease-fire and political settlement were reached at
the Geneva Conference in 1954. Vietnam was provisionally divided into two zones
roughly along the seventeenth parallel. The north was officially known as the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). The south came under the administrative
control of the State of Vietnam, including the Paracel and Spratly islands. In October
1955, the State of Vietnam was officially renamed Republic of Vietnam (RVN).
In 1956, the RVN replaced French forces on islets in the Crescent group and
maintained a continuous presence for eighteen years. In 1956, the RVN protested
the PRC’s occupation of the Amphitrite group. In the late 1950s and 1960s Chinese
fishermen began arriving in RVN waters and came ashore on unoccupied islets in the
Paracels. This led to a number of confrontations.
By 1966, the RVN presence on Pattle Island had been reduced to a single garrison
and a weather station. After the signing of the Paris Agreement on ending the
Vietnam War in January 1973 the RVN reduced its presence in the Paracels to a
single platoon of soldiers.
In January 1974, Communist China opportunistically took advantage of the U.S.
withdrawal from South Vietnam and the lower RVN military presence in the Paracels,
to attack RVN forces and warships. China seized Drummond, Duncan and Robert
islands in the Crescent group. Chinese aggression was condemned by the RVN (as
well as the People’s Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, or
communist forces in South Vietnam).
In 1976, after Vietnam was reunified under the name Socialist Republic of Vietnam
(SRV). The SRV claimed sovereignty over the Paracels as the successor state to the
Republic of Vietnam.
China also committed an act of armed aggression when it attacked SRV naval forces
and seized Fiery Cross and South Johnston reefs in March 1988.
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China’s resort to armed force to seize land features in the Paracel and Spratly island
is an act of aggression under international law. International law does not recognize
sovereignty over land acquired by aggression. Under international law the current
government in Hanoi, as successor state to the Republic of Vietnam, has the rightful
claim to sovereignty over the land features and sovereign jurisdiction over the
natural resources in the adjacent waters and sea bed of land features presently
occupied by China.
True to form, China has refused to accept the decision of the Arbitral Tribunal in the
case brought by the Philippines against China. China also committed an act of armed
aggression when it attacked SRV naval forces and seized Fiery Cross and South
Johnston reefs in March 1988.
The Arbitral Tribunal found that China’s nine dash line claim to the South China Sea
had no basis in international law and that two of the features that China occupied
(Subi and Mischief reefs) were low tide elevations and not subject to appropriation.
The Arbitral Tribunal was set up under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). UNCLOS cannot decide on questions of sovereignty
only over disputes concerning maritime jurisdiction.
Despite Vietnam’s legal claim to sovereignty it has few options to recover lost
territory. First, the United Nations Security Council did not take up Chinese
aggression in 1974 and 1988. The People’s Republic of China became a member of
the UN Security Council in 1971 and would have vetoed any discussion of this issue.
Vietnam is unable to take this matter to international arbitration because it would
need the consent of China to do so. Unfortunately. China’s illegal seizure of land
features in the Paracel and Spratly islands is an example of might makes right.

Suggested citation: Carlyle A. Thayer, “45th Anniversary of China’s Attack on the

Republic of Viet Nam’ Paracel Islands,” Thayer Consultancy Background Brief,
January 17, 2019. All background briefs are posted on Scribd.com (search for
Thayer). To remove yourself from the mailing list type, UNSUBSCRIBE in the Subject
heading and hit the Reply key.

Thayer Consultancy provides political analysis of current regional security issues and
other research support to selected clients. Thayer Consultancy was officially
registered as a small business in Australia in 2002.