According to international law,
Vietnam has sufficient historical and legal evidence to prove its sovereignty
over two archipelagoes of Paracels and Spratlys, asserting
that they are inseparable parts of Vietnam’s territory. Despite that fact,
China took advantage and used force, inconsistently with international law, to
invade all Paracels (then under the management of the southern Vietnam’s
authority) on January 19th 1974 and partly Spratlys on March 14th
1988 , creating a state of sovereignty dispute with Vietnam in the two
archipelagoes of Paracels and Spratlys.
Legally, Vietnam and the international community
have never recognized and will never recognize the China’s sovereignty over
Paracels and Spratlys which they used force occupy, seriously violating
international law. However, since China’s invasions of Vietnam’s Paracels and
Spratlys has been limitedly mentioned in the history of relations between
Vietnam and China as well as because of one-sided and deviated reports from
China, people in the two countries an over the world have not been able to get
correct information and insights about these events.
