Geographical location around the Paracel Islands (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
[Look at China September 10, 2021 News]ChinaUsed to claim to haveSouth China SeaSovereignty, and cause various disputes. Bill Hayton is a British journalist and scholar. He found a letter in the British National Archives. It was written on August 8, 1899 by the Qing Dynasty Prime Minister’s Office to the British Legion in Beijing. The letter, clearly mentioned in the letter,Paracel IslandsIt is an “abandoned islands” and does not belong to China. Therefore, no special authority was responsible for policing them.
After the semi-official historical document was exposed, it attracted international attention. As China has always advocated the sovereignty of the islands in the South China Sea, it has even actively pursued military expansion.
According to Haydn’s report to Radio Free Asia, the translated letter found in the British National Archives may provide another piece of evidence to prove China’s claim of historic rights to the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. Is untrustworthy.
More on that 1899 letter in which Qing China denied responsibility for the Paracel Islands – including very rare video of the researcher (me) at work… Good contextualising comments from @SteinTonnesson and @IanJStorey too… https://t.co/Oe85hQjP6n via @RadioFreeAsia
— Bill Hayton (@bill_hayton) September 8, 2021
Haydn is the author of “Inventions of China” (2020) and “South China Sea” (2014). He found a translation of this letter from 1899 in the archives due to the “Bellona Copper Case” ( Bellona copper case), a German ship “Bellona” wrecked near the Paracel Islands, but the copper cargo on board was stolen by Chinese fishermen. Britain asked for compensation from the Qing court on behalf of Germany, but the Qing empire’s Prime Minister’s Yamen (equivalent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) stated that the islands were on the “high seas” and were not Chinese territory, so they had nothing to do with China and refused to compensate.
In fact, not only this letter, Haydn said, he also found a transcript of another letter written by the then Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi to the British Consul in Guangzhou, Byron Brenan, on April 14, 1898, which also mentioned in the letter. Copper protection case. At that time, Governor Tan Zhonglin (that is, the first Guangzhou uprising that suppressed Sun Yat-sen during his tenure) wrote that the Chinese government could not protect the sunken ships because they were in the deep blue sea. Ting could not admit the claim for compensation.
In addition, the Governor of Indochina, France, in a letter to the French colonial minister in 1930 also mentioned the Bellona copper case. The letter quoted the Governor of Guangzhou, China as saying that the Paracel Islands are “abandoned islands”. , No longer belong to China but Vietnam, and no special authority was responsible for policing them.
Haydn said that the letter is currently only an English translation, and the Chinese document has not been found. It is very likely that it has been lost or damaged. However, Nguyen Nha, a well-known Vietnamese historian, said that this newly discovered letter can serve as another valuable piece of evidence, which seems to prove that China has not always insisted on owning Xisha since ancient times. Ownership of the islands.
Stein Tonnesson, a Norwegian historian and South China Sea researcher, said that the letter may have confirmed the source of other information, and also showed that the Qing Empire did not consider the Paracel Islands as Chinese territory at the time.
According to the “Australian Financial Review” report, although the International Court of Justice made a ruling in accordance with the “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” in 2016, which stated that China does not own the resources of the South China Sea; The South China Sea is called the “nine-dash line” and belongs to China’s territorial waters.
Editor in charge: Wang Jun
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