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There are nearly 300 cities in China. On June 21, the Chinese Government added another to that list. Sansha is the smallest city in China —it’s also one of the most controversial, located in the politically sensitive South China Sea whose surrounding countries make overlapping sovereignty claims on the area.
A statement released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on June 21 said that the city will govern the Xisha (Paracel), Zhongsha and Nansha (Spratly) islands and their adjacent waters. The Sansha Municipal Government will be seated on Yongxing Island of the Xisha Islands. The city has jurisdiction over an area of more than 2 million square km, most of which is water.
National strategy
Sansha is part of China’s administrative plan and long-term strategy on the South China Sea issue, said Li Guoqiang, Deputy Director of the Research Center for Chinese Borderland History and Geography at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In November 2007, the State Council approved plans for Sansha. The plan was proposed by the Hainan Provincial Government, which previously held jurisdiction over the region.
China is the first country to discover, name and exercise sovereignty over the islands and their adjacent waters. The People’s Republic of China set up a county-level administration office governing the area in 1959. In 1988, Hainan Province was established, and the administrative office was put under its auspices.
A spokesperson of the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on June 21 that the founding of Sansha will help improve China’s administrative management in the area, promote its future development and protect the waters of the South China Sea.
In its 50-plus years of history, the administrative office had fulfilled its responsibilities, yet its functions were no longer compatible with the area’s social and economic development, said Li.
Qu Xing, Director of China Institute of International Studies, said that setting up Sansha City will not only strengthen China’s governance over these South China Sea islands and waters, but also safeguard the country’s sovereignty and marine rights and interests in the area.
He said that Sansha will focus it routine work on marine environment protection, research and resource development. The Central Government and Hainan Provincial Government will provide necessary fiscal support to the city.
Through these actions, the Chinese Government is exercising legitimate jurisdiction over South China Sea islands, Qu said. Sansha will also handle fishery disputes in the South China Sea and protect fishermen’s personal and property safety.
Investment opportunities
Like other cities, Sansha is bent on attracting investment to prop up its economy, improve people’s livelihood, construct public utilities and improve social welfare, Li said.
“This is a very good opportunity for foreign enterprises to invest in the area,” Li said. Foreign companies can seek approval from the Sansha Municipal Government to build factories or make other forms of investment to tap local resources according to relevant laws and regulations of the country, he said.
The South China Sea has huge oil and natural gas reserves. Data from the Ministry of Land and Resources show that the area has more than 200 oil-gas-bearing structures and 180 oil-gas fields; it has potential oil reserves of 55 billion tons and gas reserves of 20 trillion cubic meters.
Li said that Sansha can attract companies to develop oil and natural resources, and foreign companies can do so by forming joint ventures with their Chinese partners.
Technological breakthroughs in offshore drilling platforms and the new success of the Jiaolong submersible have demonstrated China’s strength as a maritime power and its capacity to carry out offshore and deep water exploration and extracting.
Tourism is also a focus of Sansha, said Li. In 2009, the State Council mentioned developing tourism in Xisha in its plan to build Hainan into an international tourism island.
On June 25, the Hainan Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics designated four reefs in the Xisha Islands as cultural heritage protection areas including the Beijiao Reef, the Huaguang Reef, the Yuzhuo Reef and the Yongle Reef. In cooperation with the Ministry of Public Security, the bureau will construct offshore monitoring platform and conduct routine law enforcement inspections to protect offshore cultural relics.
Moreover, Hainan has already set up six marine ecological reserves in the area since 1980. The area may soon become a hot tourist destination. “I am very optimistic about Sansha’s tourism prospect,” Li said.
Rich in fishery resources, the South China Sea has been a traditional fishing ground of Chinese fishermen. The establishment of Sansha marks a milestone in the development of Hainan’s marine economy, said Zhao Zhongshe, Director of the Department of Ocean and Fisheries of Hainan Province at an interview on June 24.
Zhao said that Sansha will develop four types of fisheries, including marine fishing industry. He said that fishing grounds in the area can sustain a maximum catch of more than 2 million tons, whereas the current annual catch of Hainan Province is only around 80,000 tons, which promises big development poten- tial. In addition, Sansha will develop deepwater net cage aquaculture, seedling industry and marine product processing industry.
“Each of the four fishery industries is very attractive to investors,” Zhao said.
Rough waters ahead
Setting up Sansha City is a real political, economic, social and defense maneuver.
Gong Shaopeng, a professor of international relations at China Foreign Affairs University, said that a lot of work needs to be done to set up a new city, such as setting up local government organizations, and holding elections for local legislative and political advisory bodies.
And it will take a significant amount of time for Sansha to build its infrastructure, medical care and education systems, Gong said.
Yongxing Island, the seat of Sansha Municipal Government, has relatively good infrastructure such as a dock, airport, hospital, bank and post office. Yet infrastructure is still quite poor on other islands inhabited by fishermen, where there is no adequate supply of fresh water and electricity for daily use.
Currently, a pressing issue for Sansha is to improve access to the city, Li said. He suggested that Hainan Province should use the resources of Hainan Airlines to open normal flights to Sansha, and connect Yongxing Island to Hainan Island with regular marine passenger shipping and cargo shipping services and high-speed hovercraft.
While gearing for economic development, Sansha should avoid investment overheating and over-development, Li said.
“Sansha should have an overall plan that balances resource exploitation with environment protection,” he said.
Li said that the city should put environment protection at priority because the islands there are mostly formed by coral reefs, whose ecosystem is very fragile.
“If we overexploit the resources and do not protect the ecosystem properly, the consequence can be disastrous. So we must plan ahead and put protection at priority,” said Li.
The Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha Islands
The Xisha Islands comprise 22 islets, seven sandbanks and more than 10 coral reefs. There are more than 3,500 permanent residents living on the Xisha Islands. Yongxing, the largest island in the archipelago, covers an area of 2.13 square km. Yongxing Island lies 182 nautical miles away from Hainan Island.
The Zhongsha Islands consist of sandbanks, reefs and islets, which are all submersed in water except for Huangyan Island. The Zhongsha Islands are about 200 nautical miles to the east of Yongxing Island of the Xisha Islands.
The Nansha Islands are the southernmost and scattered across the largest area, with more than 200 islets, reefs, sandbanks and shoals. Major islands in the archipelago are Taiping Island, Zhongye Island, Nanwei Island and Zhenghe Qunjiao. The Zengmu Reef is the southernmost point of China’s territory.
China’s Jurisdiction Over the South China Sea
China first discovered and named the reefs, islets and the surrounding waters of the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands, and has exercised sovereignty control continuously over the area.
In A.D.110, the government of the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.- A.D.220) set up a government agency on Hainan Island, which marks the beginning of central governance over Hainan Island and the islands in the South China Sea. At that time, Chinese people often navigated on the South China Sea and lived and fished around the Xisha Islands and the Nansha Islands.
In A.D.971, the navy of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) cruised the Xisha Islands. This was the earliest record of China’s naval patrol in the area.
In the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1369), Emperor Kubla Khan sent astronomer Guo Shoujing to conduct astronomical observations in the Zhongsha Islands, which evidenced the government’s sovereignty over the area.
In 1911, the Guangdong Provincial Government of the Republic of China proclaimed that the Xisha Islands were put under the jurisdiction of Hainan’s Yaxian County (currently known as Sanya City).
After the end of the World War II, according to the Postdam Declaration issued in July 1945 and the Cairo Declaration issued in 1947, the Republic of China sent high commissioners to the Xisha Islands from 1946 to 1948 to take over the archipelago. A takeover ceremony was held on the islands, and a monument was put up to assert China’s sovereignty. The government also stationed army and set up a service station for fishermen on Taiping Island, the largest of its kind in the Nansha Islands.
In March 1959, the Central Government of the People’s Republic of China set up the administrative office for the Xisha, Nansha and Zhongsha islands, which was governed by Guangdong Province.
In October 1984, Hainan Administrative Region was set up, which took over the administrative office.
In April 1988, Hainan Province was set up and the administrative office was put under the province.
In June 2012, the State Council approved the establishment of Sansha City, which governs the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands and their surrounding waters. Meanwhile the administrative office for the area was abolished.