A Study Of Historical Disputes In The South China Sea Islands (1921-1949)

Since ancient times, the south China sea islands is China’s inherent territory. China’s sovereignty over the South China Sea islands has sufficient, indisputable historical and legal basis. Recently, some countries surrounding the South China Sea, for various purposes, began to challenge China’s sovereignty of the islands of the South China Sea. In fact, dispute on the islands of the South China Sea has become the focus of public opinion for a long time. Actually, the disputes of the South China Sea Islands and resources initiated as early as the republic of China in late Qing dynasty. Towards the dispute of these islands, the authorities of the republic of China has conducted negotiations with France, Japan and other countries on the sovereignty and resources development of xisha,dongsha, nansha islands in different levels and ways. In the course of settlement, the authorities of the republic of China adopted different solutions when faced with different times, places, objects of controversy which are inevitably influenced by the current political situation.Based on the time and space as clues, this thesis will comprehensively review the time, place, background and process of each dispute to systematically comb historic confliction over the south China sea islands during the period of the republic of China. In this way, I hope this will be helpful to provide necessary reference for the solutions. The thesis is divided into five parts. The first chapter mainly introduces the historic geographical conditions of the South China Sea islands from the perspective of time and space, which expounds the formation background of the islands of the south China sea dispute. The second chapter mainly analyzes the dispute between China and Japan about marine resources of the islands form1920s to1930s. In the third chapter, I will mainly discuss the competition of three parties including China, France and Japan in the battle of nine nansha islands. The fourth chapter discusses the Sino-French negotiation about the sovereignty over Paracel Islands in1930s in details. In the fifth chapter, post-war disputes among China, France and other countries on the islands of the South China Sea will be systematically analyzed.