Tension on the High Seas
This past weekend Vietnamese students from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City held demonstrations criticizing China for recent incursions on what they believe to be sovereign Vietnamese territory. The islands in the South China Sea (including the Spratly and Paracel Islands) have long been under territorial contention between Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Taiwan. On May 26th Hanoi authorities accused a Chinese patrol of a cutting the cables on a Vietnamese ship conducting seismic research in the area.
Who Owns the Paracel Islands?
In the South China Sea there are a group of tiny, uninhabited islands known to the western world as the Paracel Islands (Quan Dao Hoang Sa in Vietnamese and Xisha Qundao in Chinese). The archipelago lies roughly 200 miles from the nearest mainland shore, equidistant from Vietnamese and Chinese coastlines, and is delineated into two groups: the Amphitrite group in the northeast and the Crescent group in the southwest. In total the geographic region consists of over thirty islets, sandbanks, and reefs.
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