`In the face of the extremely serious situation in the Truong Sa archipelago area, since December last year Vietnam has three times proposed to the Chinese side to open talks for the settlement of differences concerning the Truong Sa archipelago and other disputes over the common border and the Hoang Sa archipelago. (Notes respectively dated 17th December and 23rd December.) At the same time it proposed that pending the settlement of disputes by means of negotiations "the two sides should refrain from the use of force to settle disputes and avoid any clashes that may aggravate the situation.' (Note dated 26th December.)
`The Chinese authorities slanderously labelled the Vietnamese proposals "hypocritical" in order to reject negotiations with Vietnam and have not responded to Vietnam's proposal that the two sides undertake not to use force to settle disputes. All this shows that China continues implementing a policy of hostility against Vietnam, and continues its acts of usurpation in the Truong Sa archipelago. In the face of China's policy of reliance on the use of force, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Vietnam is determined to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Chinese actions in the Hoang Sa archipelago previously, and in the Truong Sa archipelago at present, in fact are nothing more than part of China's expansionist and hegemonist policy towards Vietnam and South-East Asia.
`These two archipelagos lie 800 kilometres from each other. They consist of a large number of islands and coral reefs and shoals. The total emerging area of each archipelago is about 10 square kilometres. The value of both archipelagos lies in their strategic position in the Bien Dong Sea and their great riches of oil and natural gas. Vietnam's case is that it has maintained effective occupation of the two archipelagos at least since the seventeenth century, when they were not under the sovereignty of any country, and the Vietnamese state has exercised effectively, continuously, and peacefully its sovereignty over the two archipelagos until the time when they were invaded by the Chinese armed forces.
`Relations between Vietnam and China have not developed as well as the Vietnamese people hoped. Along with the escalation of provocative acts and land-grabbing operations along the land border, in January 1974 Peking used a military force to attack and occupy the remaining western group of islands of the Hoang Sa archipelago. With the war by proxy of the genocidal Pol Pot clique in south-western Vietnam, the war of 1979 involving 600,000 Chinese troops in the northern border regions of Vietnam, and now this disgraceful attack, Peking has brought Sino-Vietnamese relations to their worst. The realities of the last twenty years and more have clearly shown that China has turned the tables, switching friends and foes and brazenly carrying out an anti-Vietnam policy.
`Throughout the past thousands of years, China had never exercised sovereignty over these two archipelagos. What China did, though, was by the gradual use of military force between 1956 and 1999 occupy the Hoang Sa archipelago. And what she has been doing since the end of last year is to begin threatening the occupation a number of rocks and reefs in Vietnam's Truong Sa, again by use of military force. Thus, China is translating into action the 30th July 1997 declaration made by former Chinese Foreign Minister Geng Wuhua: "The Chinese territory spreads down to the James Shoals near Sarawak (Malaysia)… You can carry out exploitation as you wish. When the time comes, however, we will retrieve those islands. There will be no need then to negotiate at all, these islands having since long ago belonged to China."
`Chinese claims to sovereignty over the islands are nonsense. Peking has cited the astronomical surveys by the Yuan Dynasty (thirteenth century) in Nanhai to conclude that the Xisha archipelago lay within Chinese territory under the Yuan. Nevertheless, it is written in the official history of the Yuan Dynasty itself that the Chinese domain under the Yuan Dynasty extended only to Hainan Island in the south and not beyond the Gobi Desert in the north, that is to say, it did not include the islands which China calls Xisha today. China has cited a patrol cruise by Vice-Admiral Wu Sheng in the years 1710 to 1712 or so during the Qing Dynasty alleging that Vice-Admiral Wu himself set out from Qiongya, proceeding to Tonggu, Qizhouyang, and Sigengsha, making a 5,000 kilometre tour of inspection. On this basis, China asserts that Qizhouyang is the present-day Xisha archipelago area which was then patrolled by naval units of Guangdong Province. Qiongya, Tonggu, and Sigengsha are names of localities on the coast of Hainan Island, while Qizhouyang is a maritime zone lying between the north-eastern coast of Hainan Island and the group of seven islets situated to the north-east of Hainan. So that was just an inspection tour around Hainan Island. Peking's conclusions are obviously contrary to historical and geographical facts.
`Besides, if maritime patrol and inspection tours are presented as an argument proving Chinese sovereignty over the two archipelagos, one may wonder whether China is going to claim sovereignty over such territories in relation to which Zheng He under the Ming Dynasty seven times (between 1405 and 1430) dispatched a large naval fleet with more than 60 gunships and 28,000 men to impose Chinese hegemony on territories within the Indian Ocean zone and undertake territorial exploration in the Red Sea zone and along the coast of eastern Africa.
`Comparing the respective cases of Vietnam and China, one can see that China has never administered the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos and it is all the more impossible to say that China has exercised effectively, continuously, and peacefully her "sovereignty" over these islands. The claim of Chinese sovereignty is one that China has not up to now been able to prove. The state of Vietnam has effectively occupied the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa since at least the seventeenth century and has effectively, continuously, and peacefully exercised its sovereignty ever since. From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, Chinese dynasties had never protested but implicitly recognized Vietnamese jurisdiction over the archipelagos.
`Our jurisdiction over the islands is recognized by many leading countries, including France. One the basis of equality and mutual respect the government of Vietnam has asked France to send a detachment of troops to help with the assessment of damage that the Chinese have inflicted upon our military forces. We confidently expect a positive response from France. `The developments up to the present day point to all the dangers inherent in China's policy of reliance on the use of force. A peaceful settlement of the dispute over the archipelagos of Truong Sa and Hoang Sa would respond to the desire for peace of the peoples of Vietnam and China, in conformity with the principles of international law and the UN Charter, with the interest of peace, stability, and cooperation in South-East Asia, the Asia-Pacific region, and the whole world. This is the most correct way. Public opinion in South-East Asia and in the whole world is looking forward to China's positive response. Being one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, China has a major obligation to abide by the UN Charter.'
The first statement from the United States came from the State Department spokesman, Donald Bryant, who called a news conference for correspondents accredited to the department.
BRYANT: As you know, we are still trying to ascertain exactly what is happening in Vietnam and the South China Sea. The President, the Secretary of State, the National Security Adviser, the Defense Secretary, and the Joint Chiefs have been briefed.