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Vietnam's claims do not hold water

By Li Jieyu (China Daily) Updated: 2014-05-09 07:55

China will remain resolute in safeguarding sovereignty over its South China Sea islands and the adjacent marine areas.

"Land dominates the sea" is what UNCLOS insists on. China enjoys sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their territorial seas, and sovereign rights over the exclusive economic zones and continental shelf respectively, which was stated by China in the diplomatic note it sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in response to the joint proposition of Vietnam and Malaysia for outer continental shelf boundary delimitation.

In the marine areas around the Nansha Islands, more than 1,000 oil and natural gas wells exist, but none belong to China. Due to the difficulties in logistical supply and technical backwardness, China indeed lags behind in resources exploration and exploitation there.

In the 1960's, the preliminary proof of enriched natural resources on the continental shelf in the East China Sea caught the eyes of Japan, which speeded up its negotiations with the United States for the return of the Okinawa Islands. Ten years later, the same reason encouraged the Philippines to claim sovereignty over Huangyan Island.

In terms of interests and rights protection, action seems to be speaking louder than words. Being the main form of exercising sovereignty, administrative jurisdiction includes migration management and economic activities regulation. And Vietnam itself has taken a series of advancements, legitimate or not.

Oil and natural gas resources are of extreme importance to the economic development and industrialization of China and safeguarding China's interests will bring about actual effects visible to the people.

The author is an assistant professor at the Hainan Provincial Party School.

(China Daily 05/09/2014 page8)