Vietnamese Claims to the Truong Sa Archipelago
[Ed. Spratly Islands]
Todd C. Kelly
Todd C. Kelly graduated from the M.A. program in Asian Studies at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa in August 1999.
There is a tide in the affairs of men[1]
On a string of mere flyspeck islands in the middle of the high seas, the
military forces of five nations stand arrayed against one another, each prepared
to do battle with the others. The land these potential belligerents seek to
control is barely any land at all, but rather a group of tiny rocks, many of
which are frequently under water. No humans have ever settled there, and for
centuries the only nations that knew of their existence recognized them
primarily as a hazard to maritime navigation. How then did this chain of islets,
which the nations of Asia and the world considered insignificant for so long,
suddenly become so important that battles have been fought over them and
countries continue to risk war in order to control the chain? The answers are as
difficult to see as are the Truong Sa Islands themselves at high tide.
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is one of the six nations[2] that has laid
claim to the Truong Sa archipelago. While all the claimant countries have
publicly asserted that each should be the legitimate and sole sovereign of all
or part of the archipelago, it is Vietnam that has been one of the most adamant
in its claims and that has taken assertive steps in attempting to establish its
control over the chain. Its willingness to go so far as to risk war with the
mighty People's Republic of China (PRC) is evidence enough that the Truong Sa
Islands are extremely important to Vietnam. But why? What are the historical,
political, legal, economic, and strategic basis of Vietnam's sovereignty claims
to the Truong Sa archipelago, and why is control of these islands so important
to Hanoi?
This paper presents the arguments Vietnam has put forth to substantiate its
claims to the islands. It is not intended to validate those arguments but merely
to examine the Vietnamese perspective on this issue. To that end, several
primary sources--i.e., Vietnamese government documents--have been used for this
study. Since these sources are official position papers or policy statements
(White Papers) published by Hanoi, their objectivity may be questioned. Whenever
possible, information drawn from these documents will be cross-referenced with
non-Vietnamese academic works.
The majority of Vietnamese primary sources not only argue Hanoi's case for
sovereignty over the Truong Sa but also attempt to refute the claims of other
countries, particularly those of China. This repeated countering of Chinese
arguments is clearly a result of Beijing's and Taiwan's actions regarding the
archipelago, especially in the latter half of this century; but these rebuttals
are also indicative of a larger adversarial issue: the historical relationship
between Vietnam and China.
The Context of the Dispute
The pasts of the Vietnamese and Chinese peoples have been intertwined since
their histories began. Indeed, the prevalent theory about Vietnamese origins is
that the original inhabitants of northern Vietnam were descendants of the Yueh
migration from southern China. Despite these common beginnings, independent
civilizations developed during the Vietnamese pre-historical period, known as
Dong-song.
That independent relationship would eventually change, however, at least for
Vietnam (known as Van Lang until after 258 B.C.). Since the first Chinese
conquest of the Vietnamese kingdom by Trieu Da in 208 B.C.E., there have been at
least four periods when China occupied and ruled the 'land of the southern
barbarians,'[3] as well as countless other minor invasions and incursions into
Vietnam. This historical relationship produced a rather schizophrenic result:
generations of Chinese rule introduced technologies, traditions, and
advances--such as a written language--that had long-lasting effects on
Vietnamese civilization and served to foster closer ties between the two
peoples. Yet an independent and nationalistic spirit survived among the people
of Vietnam.
This Vietnamese identity, cognizant of its distinctiveness from the Chinese
identity, fueled resentment of outside rule and manifested itself through
recurring struggles against the perceived occupation of Vietnam's territories by
foreign powers--especially China. When viewed through the context of this
historical dynamic, the dispute over the Truong Sa Islands appears as a
microcosm of the age-old conflict between these two neighbors. To see how this
is so, it is important to examine the islands themselves and their role
throughout history.
The Truong Sa Islands
The countries disputing the Truong Sa archipelago can rarely find agreement
on any issue relating to the island chain, and this includes what to call the
disputed islets. Therefore, a brief discussion of the naming convention to be
used in this analysis is in order. Throughout this study, the Vietnamese names
for the archipelago and its features will be used except where quotation
material preclude such reference. Since Vietnam has yet to publish a complete
list of names for all the features of the Truong Sa archipelago,[4] the English
names will be used whenever there is no known Vietnamese equivalent.
Located in the East Sea (called the South China Sea outside of Vietnam), the
Truong Sa archipelago is best known in the West as the Spratly Islands. The area
is also frequently referred to as the "Dangerous Ground" because of its hazards
to maritime navigation. To both the PRC and the ROC (Republic of China, Taiwan),
the islands are known as the Nansha archipelago.
The islands claimed by the Philippines, which do not include the entire
Truong Sa archipelago, are called the Kalaya'an Island Group by Manila.[5] While
Malaysia maintains Malay names for the islands and features it occupies, Kuala
Lumpur's claims also do not include the entire chain, and thus no attempt has
been made to rename the whole archipelago. Similarly, Brunei asserts that it is
entitled to sovereignty over only two reefs, not the entire chain.[6]
The Truong Sa archipelago incorporates some five actual islands, three cays,
26 reefs, 21 shoals, and ten banks. Only 25 - 35 of these islets are known to be
above water at low tide.[7] The largest island in the chain is Dao Thai Binh
(also known as Dao Ba Binh), with a total area of .46 square kilometers and a
maximum elevation of about 15 feet[8] Truong Sa Island itself is a mer | 
Vietnamese Claims Spratlys