Ten Questions Regarding Huangyan Island(4)

4. How has China exercised effective jurisdiction of Huangyan Island?

Among the 132 islands, shoals, reefs and sand bars in the South China Sea in the list of geographical names approved and publicized by the Water and Land Mapping Review Committee of the Chinese government in 1935, Huangyan Island was listed as part of the Zhongsha Islands. The committee subsequently issued the Map of China's Islands in the South China Sea and included Huangyan Island into China's territory. The Internal Affairs Ministry of the Chinese government produced a Location Map of the South China Sea Islands in 1947,in which the geographical names of the Dongsha, Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands were clearly marked, together with 172 islands, shoals, reefs and sand bars. Huangyan Island, then named Minzhu Jiao, was marked as part of the Zhongsha Islands. In 1948, this Location Map was officially publicized by the Internal Affairs Ministry of the Chinese government as an appendix to the Administrative Map of the Republic of China.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, China has continued to exercise sovereignty over Huangyan Island.  Chinese Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai, in his 1951 statement on the US and UK's draft peace treaty with Japan and the San Francisco Conference, explicitly stated the following: " The Xisha Islands and Nanwei Island, just like the Nansha, Zhongsha and Dongsha islands, have always been China's territory. Although they had been occupied by Japan for some time during the war of aggression waged by Japanese imperialists, they were all taken back by the then Chinese government following Japan's surrender." Therefore, Huangyan Island as part of the Zhongsha Islands indisputably belongs to China. China issued the Statement of the People's Republic of China on the Territorial Sea in 1958,in which China reaffirmed its sovereignty over the Dongsha, Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands. In 1959, the Office for Xisha, Nansha and Zhongsha Islands' Affairs under the government of Guangdong Province, was opened by the Chinese government on the Yongxing Island, which is a part of the Xisha Islands. The office became a part of the government of the newly-established Hainan Province in 1988.

In the early 1980s, the Chinese government conducted a survey of the geographical names of the Nanhai Islands. In 1983, the  Committee on Geographical Names of China was authorized to publicize the geographical names of selected islands in the South China Sea, in which Huangyan Island was included as the standard name and Minzhu Jiao as its alternative name. The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone publicized in 1992 has explicitly provided in article 2 that " The land territory of the People's Republic of China includes the mainland of the People's Republic of China and its coastal islands; Taiwan and all islands appertaining there to including the Diaoyu Islands; the Penghu Islands; the Dongsha Islands; the Xisha Islands; the Zhongsha Islands and the Nansha Islands; as well as all the other islands belonging to the People's Republic of China." Once again, China reaffirmed its sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea, including Huangyan Island. It needs to be mentioned that not any country has ever opposed or disputed China's sovereignty over Huangyan Island.