Claims The ownership of the islands remains hotly contested. The People's Republic of China (PRC) on mainland China,
Vietnam, and the Republic of China (ROC) on
Taiwan all claim sovereignty. The PRC has controlled the entire archipelago since the
Battle of the Paracel Islands in January 1974. In July 2012, China (PRC) established
Sansha, Hainan Province, as administering the area. As of February 2017, 20 PRC outposts, including small harbours, built on
reclaimed land have been reported in the Paracels. The majority of the Paracel islands lie within 200 nm of both China's and Vietnam's geographic baselines under the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Historical perspectives The nation states involved have differing historic perspectives as to sovereignty of the Paracel Islands with the Chinese claiming an interest since their discovery of the islands in the second century BC. A Vietnamese interest was crystallised in the view of one commentator by the planting of their flag in 1816. In 1836, the Vietnamese installed ten 5-meter steles with inscriptions that claimed the islands. In 1909 the Chinese sent an expedition to claim and map the islands in reaction to Japanese interest in exploiting the
guano there. or Hainan, then under its control. The Paracels and Spratlys were handed over to the Republic of China's control after the 1945 surrender of Japan, At the end of the war (Asian-Pacific Region), the ROC occupied the Paracels, Spratlys, and other islands in the South China Sea in October and November 1946. In the Geneva accord of 1954, Japan formally renounced all of its claims to, inter alia, the South China Sea islands that it had occupied during World War II. After World War II ended, the Republic of China was consistently the "most active claimant" of the islands. It garrisoned Woody Island, the main island of the Amphitrite group, and posted Chinese flags and markers on it. France tried, but failed, to force the ROC to leave, although the weather station on Prattle Island continued to be operated by French Indochina. The aim of the ROC was to block French claims. In December 1947, the ROC drew up a map showing its eleven-dotted line U-shaped claim to the entire South China Sea, including the Spratly and Paracel Islands as Chinese territory. After the communists gained control of China in 1949 after
victory in the
Chinese Civil War, they occupied Woody Island. By 1955
South Vietnam had taken possession of the Crescent Group. North Vietnam's prime minister
Phạm Văn Đồng recognized Chinese sovereignty over the Paracels in 1958. After winning the
Vietnam war, North Vietnam retracted its recognition, saying it had done so to receive aid from China in fighting the Americans, according to Pham's discussion in June 1977 with China's
Li Xiannan. After the
Battle of the Paracel Islands in January 1974, the People's Republic of China expelled the Vietnamese from the Crescent Group and took full control of the Paracels. In 1976 the
Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) tried to persuade Beijing to acknowledge Vietnam's sovereignty over the Spratly Islands to the south, offering in return to recognize China's claim over the Paracel Islands. However, when this effort failed, Vietnam's government, now under CPV control, asserted its claim over both archipelagos.
China 618–1279 There are some Chinese cultural relics in the Paracel islands dating from the
Tang and
Song eras, and there is some evidence of Chinese habitation on the islands during these periods, though the relics are more likely washed ashore from shipwrecked
junks. According to the
Wujing Zongyao, a book published in the
Northern Song dynasty in 1044, the Song government then included the Islands in the patrol areas of the Navy of the Court.
1279–1368 The
Yuan dynasty travel book
Daoyi Zhilüe describes
Wanli Shitang (, "Ten-Thousand Mile Rock Pool") as comprising three veins extending from
Chaozhou to
Borneo,
Côn Sơn Island, and
Java. Maps published in the Yuan era invariably included the
Changsha (the Paracels) and the
Shitang (the Spratlys) within the domain of Yuan.
1368–1912 Relevant local annals and other historic materials of the
Ming (1368–1644) and the
Qing (1644–1912) dynasties continued to make reference to the South China Sea islands as China's territory. The
Qiongzhou Prefecture (the highest administrative authority in Hainan), exercised jurisdiction over the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the 19th century, Europeans found that Chinese fishermen from Hainan annually sojourned on the Paracel and Spratly Islands for part of the year. For three months each year between 1881 and 1884, the German Imperial Navy sent two boats (the ship
Freya and the warship
Iltis) to study and map the Paracel Islands without either seeking the permission of or incurring protest by the Chinese government. This mission was finished without any problems and the German Admiralty published the results in 1885 in a document called "Die Paracel-Inseln" (The Paracel Islands). In the period 1884 to 1885 the Tientsin Accord and Treaty of Tientsin were signed by Chinese representatives to attempt to address issues from an undeclared war between France acting on behalf of its protectorate territories in Vietnam and China. During this period between the treaties the Chinese did claim the Paracels. which France did not protest. In 1910, the Qing government decided to invite Chinese merchants to contract for the administration of the development affairs of the South China Sea islands, and demanded that officials shall provide protection and maintenance in order to highlight Chinese territory and protect its titles and interests.
1912–1950s After the fall of the
Qing dynasty, the new Government of
Guangdong Province decided to place the Paracel Islands under the jurisdiction of the Ya Xian County of
Hainan Prefecture in 1911. The Southern Military Government in 1921 reaffirmed the 1911 decision. China continued to exercise authority over the South China Sea islands by such means as granting licenses or contracts to private Chinese merchants for the development and exploitation of guano and other resources on those islands and protesting against foreign nations' claims, occupations, and other activities. For example, in May 1928, the Guangdong provincial government sent a naval vessel, the
Hai-jui (), with an investigation team organized by the provincial government and
Sun Yat-Sen University to investigate and survey the islets, after which the investigation team produced a detailed Report of Surveys on the Paracel Islands. On July27, 1932, the
Chinese Foreign Ministry instructed the Chinese Envoy to France to lodge a diplomatic protest to the
French Foreign Ministry and to deny France's claims to the Paracel Islands. On November 30 of the same year,
Zhu Zhaoshen, a high-level inspection official of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, issued public correspondence Number 66 to the French Consul in
Guangzhou, reiterating that "it is absolutely beyond doubt that the Xisha [Paracel] Islands fall within the boundary of China". Despite repeated Chinese protests, French troops, who had colonized
French Indochina in the 19th century, invaded and occupied the Paracel Islands on July 3, 1938. This took place shortly after the breakout of the
Second Sino-Japanese War, when the armed forces of China and Japan were busy elsewhere. Three days later, on July 6, the Japanese Foreign Ministry also issued a declaration in protest of the French occupation During the
Second World War, the Japanese expelled the French troops and took over the islands in spite of the 1938 declarations. The Spratlys and the Paracels were conquered by Japan in 1939. Japan administered the Spratlys via
Taiwan's jurisdiction and the Paracels via Hainan's jurisdiction. since the Allied powers had assigned the Republic of China to receive Japanese surrenders in that area. After WW2 ended, the Republic of China was the "most active claimant". The Republic of China then garrisoned Woody Island in the Paracels in 1946 and posted Chinese flags and markers on it; France tried, but failed, to make them leave Woody island. In December 1947, the Republic of China drew up a map showing its
eleven-dotted line U-shaped claim to the entire South China Sea, including the Spratly and Paracel Islands as Chinese territory. • 1680–1705, Lord
Trịnh Căn of
Tonkin instructed
Đỗ Bá Công Đạo to publish
Thiên Nam tứ chí lộ đồ (天南四至路圖), an encyclopedia consisting of four series of maps that detail routes from Thăng Long, capital of Đại Việt, to other countries in
Southeast Asia. Part of this work was based on the
Hồng Đức Atlas (
Hồng Đức Bản Đồ) developed during the time of Emperor
Lê Thánh Tông (1460–1497). This encyclopedia was considered one of the oldest and rarely preserved Vietnamese documents regarding the islands. The volume "Đường từ phủ Phụng Thiên đến Chiêm Thành" (The Route to
Champa from Phụng Thiên Province), remarkably described the archipelago with maps. For instance, a statement found in the volume read "In the middle of the sea, there is a long sandbank called Bãi Cát Vàng, which is approximately 400-league long and 20-league wide rising up above the sea." Bãi Cát Vàng means Hoàng Sa, Golden Sandbank. • In the 18th century, under instructions of the
Nguyễn lords, the salvage operations officially started with the formation of Hoàng Sa and Bắc Hải Companies. Their responsibility was to carry out the mission at Hoàng Sa (Golden Sandbank) and Vạn Lý Trường Sa (Ten-thousand-league Long Sandbank) respectively. This effort was continued thereafter with successive establishments of other naval task units in accordance with strategic policies toward the two archipelagos under the Nguyễn dynasty. Noticeably, a number of naval battles between the Dutch fleet and the Nguyễn Royal Navy occurred in 1643 and 1644. The Hoàng Sa naval task unit consisted of 70 men recruited from An Vĩnh and An Hải villages of
Quảng Ngãi, while the majority of members of the Bắc Hải Company came from
Bình Thuận province.
1700–1799 • In 1776, the
Phủ Biên Tạp Lục (撫邊雜錄), the Miscellaneous Records on the Pacification of the Frontiers, published by
Lê Quý Đôn, a philosopher, an encyclopedist, and a Minister of Construction during the Lê dynasty (1428–1789). These six volumes detail the Nguyễn dynasty's territories, including the exploitation of the Paracel and Spratly Islands from 1702 onwards.
1800–1899 • 1802–1820, under the reign of Emperor
Gia Long, the territory of his kingdom included
Tonkin,
Cochin China, part of
Cambodia, and "certain islands off the coast including the well known Paracels which bear such an evil reputation as a source of danger to navigation in the China Seas." In 1802, Emperor Gia Long created the "Hoàng Sa Đội" (Company of the Paracels) to supervise the island exploitation. • In 1807, the
East India Company sent Captain
Daniel Ross to
Cochinchina to survey the Paracel Islands. Upon arriving to the kingdom, he presented a letter of introduction entrusted by the English company to the reigning king, who was believed to be Emperor Gia Long at that time. Subsequently, Captain Ross completed chartering the south coast of China in 1807, the Paracel Islands in 1808, part of the coast of Cochin China in 1809, and the coast of
Palawan in 1810. Most notably, in his surveys published in 1821 under the title "(South) China Sea, Sheet I & II", the
Spratly Islands was referred to as The Dangerous Ground and was later renamed as Storm Island on the 1859 edition of the chart. Separately, in another document, the "Correct Chart of the China Sea", published by Herbert in 1758, the Paracel archipelago was described as a long group of islands and reefs extending from 13 to 17 degrees North, which approximately correspond to the geographic latitudes of the present-day Spratly and Paracel Islands, respectively. • In 1815, Emperor Gia Long ordered Phạm Quang Anh's Hoàng Sa naval task unit to sail to the islands to make surveys and report on maritime routes and draw up maps. • In 1816, according to
Jean-Baptiste Chaigneau, Emperor Gia Long officially claimed the sovereignty of the Paracel Islands, which would include the present-day Spratly archipelago. These two islands were later delineated distinctly under the reign of his successor, Emperor
Minh Mạng. Chaigneau was one of the most respected advisors to Emperor Gia Long. He spent more than 30 years in
Cochinchina and became the first French
Consul to this
kingdom in 1821. • In 1821, the
Lịch triều hiến chương loại chí (歷朝憲章類誌) published by Phan Huy Chú, a historian, an encyclopedist, and an officer of the Ministry of Construction in the time of emperor
Minh Mạng. This remarkable work was prepared in 10 years (1809–1819) and consisted of 10 volumes. One of them, the
Địa Dư Chí volume, details territories of
Dai Nam Kingdom. In 1838, he published the Đại Nam Thống Nhất Toàn Đồ, the Unified Đại Nam Complete Map, that distinctly delineated Vạn Lý Trường Sa (the Ten-thousand-league Long Sandbank) and Hoàng Sa (the Golden Sandbank). • In 1833, Emperor Minh Mạng ordered the Ministry of Construction to build a temple, erect steles, and plant many trees on the islands for navigation purposes. • In 1835, the King ordered Phạm Văn Nguyên's naval task unit, accompanied by workers from Bình Định and Quãng Ngãi provinces, to build Hoàng Sa temple with a wind screen and erect steles on Bàn Than Thạch (Bàn Than Rock) of the present-day Woody Island. The mission was completed in 10 days. Notably, about 33m southwest from the erection, there was a little ancient temple where a stele engraved with the words "Vạn Lý Ba Bình" found. This inscription means Ten Thousand Leagues of Calming Waves. The date of the actual erection of the ancient temple remains unknown The King ordered Phạm Hữu Nhật, a royal navy commander, to erect a wooden stele on the islands. The post was engraved with the following inscription:
The 17th of the reign of Minh Mạng by the royal ordinance commander of the navy Phạm Hữu Nhật came here to Hoàng Sa for reconnaissance to make topographical measurements and leave this stele as record thereof. In fact, the treaty only clarified Gulf of Tonkin sea border and other land border issues between Vietnam and China. • 1895–1896, German vessel
Bellona and Japanese ship
Himeji Maru sank at the islands. Chinese fishermen looted and resold them at
Hainan. These countries protested but local Chinese authorities, the Governor of Liang Guang, denied any responsibilities on the ground that the Paracels were abandoned and belonged to neither country. • On 3 July 1938, occupy the Paracels islands in turn. • In March 1939 • In 1954, according to the
Geneva Agreements, which were signed by a number of nations including the PRC, Vietnam was partitioned into two states,
North Vietnam and
South Vietnam. The 17th parallel was used as the provisional military demarcation line, which was effectively extended into the territorial waters. • In 1956, after the French withdrawal from Vietnam, South Vietnam replaced French control of the islands. By February 1956, the South Vietnamese Navy was already stationed on Pattle Island by
Ngô Đình Diệm, though both the PRC and ROC politically and diplomatically condemned the decision and reaffirmed their claims to the islands. Following on the former French claim, Vietnam claimed the entire Paracel Islands. • On September 4, 1958, the government of the PRC proclaimed the breadth of its territorial sea to be twelve nautical miles (22 km) which applied to all its territory, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands. Ten days later, the prime minister of
North Vietnam,
Phạm Văn Đồng, in his letter to
Zhou Enlai stated that his government had respected the declaration of the PRC government. The PRC government used this letter as justification for their occupation, in fact, according to PhD Nguyen Van Canh: "
The note of a prime minister, that is, the executive, is just an administrative document in the field of diplomacy, and in the matter of territorial transfers, the constitutions of countries stipulate that there must be a treaty regulating the transfer of territory and determine that problem. In other words, the National Assembly decides on that issue, and the National Assembly reflects the will of the entire people when transferring territory." • On January 19, 1974, the Battle of the Paracel Islands between the PRC and South Vietnam took place, leaving the PRC in control of the entire archipelago. On January 16, South Vietnamese naval officers and an American observer had reported to
Saigon some suspected military activities of the
Chinese navy on the Drummond and Duncan islands. After receiving the report, the government of South Vietnam decided to counter the Chinese forces, to defend the South Vietnamese-controlled section (the western half of the Paracels) from Chinese occupation, and sent a unit of
frigates to the area. On January 19, there were sea and land battles between the Chinese and Vietnamese forces with casualties on both sides. At the end, the Chinese fleet defeated the naval force of South Vietnam. With the ongoing civil war with the
Viet Cong embroiling South Vietnam's attention and the absence of the USA's support, no military attempt was made to re-engage the PRC over the islands. After the military engagement and the subsequent victory, the PRC gained control of the entire archipelago and has maintained control since. • In a statement released on 13 July 1999 by the foreign ministry of Taiwan, under President
Lee Teng-hui stated that "legally, historically, geographically, or in reality", all of the South China Sea and the islands were Taiwan's territory and under Taiwanese sovereignty. The ROC's and the PRC's claims "mirror" each other. Taiwan and China are largely strategically aligned on the islands issue, since they both claim exactly the same area, so Taiwan's claims are viewed as an extension of China's claims. China has urged Taiwan to cooperate and offered Taiwan a share in oil and gas resources while shutting out all the other rival claimants. Board director Chiu Yi of Taiwan's state run oil company, CPC Corp, has named Vietnam as the "greatest threat" to Taiwan.
21st-century events • In July 2012 the National Assembly of Vietnam passed a law demarcating Vietnamese sea borders to include the Paracel and
Spratly Islands. : : The Philippines and Vietnam promptly lodged diplomatic protests strongly opposing the establishment of the Sansha City under Chinese jurisdiction. • In April 2013, a representative from the Vietnamese
Foreign Ministry's National Boundary Commission gave a diplomatic note to a representative of the
Chinese Embassy in
Hanoi demanding that China cancel its plan to bring tourists to the Paracel archipelago. :According to reports from Chinese state media, at the beginning of May 2014, Chinese and Vietnamese naval vessels collided near the islands as Hanoi sought to prevent a Chinese
oil rig from setting up in the area. On May 26, a Vietnamese fishing boat sank near the oil rig, after colliding with a Chinese vessel. As both sides imputed the blame to each other, Vietnam released a video footage in a week later, showing a Chinese vessel ramming into its ship before it sank; the Chinese said they were on the defensive while Vietnamese vessels were attacking the Chinese fishing boats. • On May 9, 2014, Taiwan reiterated its claim to the Paracel islands, rejecting all rival claims amidst the standoff and repeating its position that all of the Paracel Islands,
Spratly Islands,
Macclesfield Bank and
Pratas Islands belong to the Republic of China along with "their surrounding waters and respective seabed and subsoil", and that Taiwan views both Vietnam and mainland China's claims as illegitimate. This statement was released by Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which added – "There is no doubt that the Republic of China has sovereignty over the archipelagos and waters." • In January 2016, photographs emerged that indicate that China is reclaiming land and expanding military facilities in the Paracels, including at Duncan Island, North Island, and Tree Island. Commentators have likened this work to the initial stages of China's large-scale construction in the Spratly Islands. • On July 12, 2016, an
arbitration under the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) backed the Philippines against China's claims of resources and maritime areas within the
nine-dash line that exceeded its entitlements under the UNCLOS. The tribunal argued that China had not historically exercised exclusive control within, hence has "no legal basis" to claim "historic rights" over resources. The ruling was rejected by both China and Taiwan. • In February 2017, the AMTI project under the
Center for Strategic and International Studies reported that Chinese authorities had carried out land reclamation on 20 reefs, thus establishing 20 Chinese outposts so far. These include
Duncan Island and
Drummond Island which also have small helipads. Of these, three were capable of berthing small naval and commercial merchant ships. • In early 2026, China began construction at Antelope Reef in the Paracel Islands, expanding infrastructure that could have military and civilian uses. The development drew attention for its scale and strategic significance in the disputed South China Sea, with observers noting potential impacts on regional security and territorial claims involving Vietnam, Taiwan, and neighbouring countries. • In March 2026, China announced a GDP growth target of 4.5–5%, the lowest since 1991, reflecting economic pressures from a slowing property sector, weak domestic demand, and an aging population. The 2026 budget included a 7% increase in defense spending, and China expanded military facilities at Antelope Reef in the Paracel Islands, contributing to regional security tensions. • In 2026, China resumed large-scale land reclamation in the
South China Sea, notably at
Antelope Reef, nearly a decade after a slowdown in its island-building activities. The construction aimed to expand infrastructure capable of supporting sustained maritime operations, reinforcing China's presence in disputed waters without creating new legal entitlements under international law. == In popular culture ==