Administration Office for Xisha Islands, Zhongsha Islands and Nansha Islands

Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority 西沙群岛、中沙群岛、南沙群岛行政办事处
—  Administration Office  —
Administration Office for Xisha Islands, Zhongsha Islands and Nansha Islands
Coordinates: 16°50′3″N 112°20′15″E
Province	Hainan
County office	Yongxing Island
Area
• Land	13 km2 (5 sq mi)
• Water	~200 km2 (~77.2 sq mi)
Population (2004)
• Total	244
Time zone	China (UTC+8)
Postal code	573100

Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority
Traditional Chinese	西沙群島、南沙群島、中沙群島辦事處
Simplified Chinese	西沙群岛、南沙群岛、中沙群岛办事处
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Xīshā Qúndǎo, Nánshā Qúndǎo, Zhōngshā Qúndǎo Bànshìchù
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese	西南中沙群岛办事处(informal), 西沙办 (abbr.)
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Xī-Nán-Zhōng Qúndǎo Bànshìchù Xīshā Bàn

The Administration Office for Xisha Islands, Zhongsha Islands and Nansha Islands is a county-level subdivision of Hainan Province in the People's Republic of China. It exercises political sovereignty, both actual and claimed, over three disputed archipelagoes in the South China Sea.

Subdivisions

The local authority is further subdivided into 3 towns at the township level (4th-level subdivision): -

• The Paracels or Xisha Islands - "The West-sands" - Town code: 469037
  • Governed by the Yongxing Dao Neighborhood Committee at Woody Island.
  • Effectively maintains control over all the features of the Paracels.

• The Zhongsha Islands - "The Middle-sands" - Town code: 469039
  • Governed by the Zhongsha Islands and Reefs Neighborhood Committee.
  • Does not have the actual control of this area.

• The Spratlys or Nansha Islands - "The South-sands" - Town code: 469038
  • Governed by the Yongshu Jiao Neighborhood Committee at Fiery Cross Reef.
  • Has the actual control over 8 features and James Shoal.

Background

New Baselines and EEZ's of China

Given approval by the State Council on the 24 March 1953, the "Guangdong Province Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority" was established as a county-level administrative division on Woody Island, the largest in area among the disputed South China Sea Islands. During the Cultural Revolution, when Revolutionary Committees were being set up across the country, it was upgraded to the "Guangdong Province Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Revolutionary Committee" on the 4 March 1969. On the 22 October 1981 the original Authority was restored. Administration was transferred to Hainan on National Day, 1984, when the Hainan Administrative Region was established, followed by the establishment of Hainan Province on the 13 April 1988. On the 19 September 1988, it was officially changed to the "Hainan Province Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority". On the 25 December 2006, Woody Island census-town's first-ever Residents' and Fishers' Congress was held. 3 representatives at the township and village levels were selected to represent the census-town's Neighborhood Committee of the North and South Villages. The Neighborhood Committee began work on Woody Island the following day with an office at the Border Guards of the Paracels' Police Station. They were the first ever actual subdivisions created within the county-level authority.

Before the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea's (UNCLOS III) addendums to the Law of the Sea, the Central government had always maintained a staggering claim to nearly 3.5 million km² in maritime area of the South China Sea, which equated to roughly one-third of China's total land area. The Central government claimed this as part of China's sovereign territorial waters, commonly known as "China's blue territories". It was delineated on maps by 9 or 10 dashed lines. Although many Chinese maps published after UNCLOS III still retain these dashed lines, they have no legal value and are used solely as a reference line to denote that "all features (islands, reefs, banks, shoals, cays, sands) located within the dashed lines are sovereign territory of the People's Republic of China". UNCLOS III, which has been ratified by China, went into force on the 16 November 1994. New baselines of the mainland and the Paracels were released on the 15 May 1996. The addendum for the EEZ's extension via Continental Shelves (in the legal sense) was also handed to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). Coupled with officially published laws of the past, China's new internal waters and territorial waters, namely, China's "blue territories", could thus be calculated to an area of approximately 31,000 km².

Facilities

There is a coastal guard station located on Woody Island along with a police station nearby. The town's Residential Committee administers the islands from the same police station. In addition to collected rain water, the islands are resupplied by a freighter which hauls several tonnes of drinking water to Woody Island from Hainan Island. The guards maintain an acre of vegetable garden on the island. There is a common saying in China that travelling abroad is easy compared to a trip to the Paracels. Indeed, before the 1970s, the only means of transportation to and from the islands were by hiring fishers' boats, and even then only Woody Island was accessible, while the rest of the Paracels, the Zhongsha Islands and the Spratlys were only accessible to military personnel. The situation was improved in 1977 with the construction of a freighter given approval by then Premier Zhou Enlai. Having a tonnage of 2160 tonnes and a maximum load of 200 personnel, the "Qiongsha 1" (literally "Hainan-South China Sea Islands 1") freighter carried supplies and personnel to and fro between Woody Island and Hainan Island. In 1997, "Qiongsha 1" was destroyed in a typhoon while en route to Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province for routine maintenance and upkeep. A smaller "Qiongsha 2" freighter at 1410 tonnes and a load of 100 personnel was commissioned that same year. It operated for 10 years, being decommissioned in the January of 2007. As of 2008, the "lifeboat" of the islands is the "Qiongsha 3" freighter (Tonnage: 2500 tonnes; Load: 200 personnel; Payload: 750 tonnes in cargo; Length: 84 metres; Width: 13.8 metres). This is basically the only means of transportation to and from the islands for non-military personnel (mostly fishers and researchers). Its maiden voyage was on the 10 February 2007, and it has been making regular voyages between Wenchang's Qinglan Port on southeastern Hainan Island and Woody Island in the Paracels roughly every 20 days. A normal trip takes 13 to 15 hours, navigating between dangerous reefs and banks, through a distance of 186 nautical miles (344 km). Although all of the Paracels have been under China's control since the late 1970s, its strategic military position at the frontiers and its status as a disputed island with several claimants' military personnel nearby, have meant a low priority for the development of tourism. Nevertheless, since 2005, the provincial government of Hainan has instituted a small organising panel to investigate and discuss the possibility of opening up tourism to Woody Island and the rest of the Paracels.

The "Sansha City"

On 19 November 2007, "Sansha City" (Chinese: 三沙市; literally "Three Sands City") was reported by Mingpao, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, through a telephone interview with Mr. Zhang of the Propaganda Department of Wenchang, Hainan. It was said that this county-level city was to be established by the PRC State Council in November 2007 to administer three disputed archipelagos in the South China Sea: the Paracel Islands, Zhongsha Islands and the Spratly Islands. This was to replace the county-level Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority. That the city of Wenchang would provide supplies and logistics to the to-be-established city. The article also stated that Wenchang's municipal party secretary Xie Wenzhang had announced a similar decision at the municipal congress on the 26 October. It was referred to simply as "City X". The article finally concluded with the possibility of the opening of tourism onto Woody Island as a next step. However, there has been no official announcement of such a decision from the Chinese government. The Foreign Ministry of Vietnam protested the reported establishment, followed by student protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

See also

• South China Sea
• South China Sea Islands
  • Paracel Islands (Battle of the Paracel Islands)
  • Macclesfield Bank
  • Scarborough Shoal
  • Spratly Islands (Johnson South Reef Skirmish)
  • James Shoal
  • Pratas Islands

External links

• Administrative divisions of Hainan Province
• Hainan Province Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority
• Hainan Province Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority Woody Island Census Town
• Subdivision Information of the Hainan Province Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority