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The Battle of the Paracel Islands was a military engagement between the naval forces of the People's Republic of China and those of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) in the Paracel Islands on January 19, 1974. The battle was an effort of the Republic of Vietnam Navy to expel the People's Liberation Army's naval vessels from the vicinity of some of the Paracels. As a result of the battle, China established permanent control over the Crescent Group of the Paracel Islands, completing its objective to assert its claim based on the "Nine-dotted line" that includes the majority of the South China Sea.〔http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/paracel.htm〕 == Background == The Paracel Islands, called Xisha Islands (; ''Xīshā Qúndǎo'') in Chinese and Hoang Sa Islands (Quần Đảo Hoàng Sa) in Vietnamese, lie in the South China Sea lie approximately equidistant from the coastlines of China (PRC) and Vietnam (~200 nautical miles). With no native population, the archipelago’s ownership has been in dispute since the early 20th century. On July 3, 1938, the French, who had colonised Indochina in the 19th century, occupied the Paracel Islands. The Nationalist Government of China, then engaged in the Second Sino-Japanese War, registered a formal protest. Three days later, the Japanese Foreign Ministry also issued a declaration in protest of the French occupation.〔"The statement of Great Britain and France made respectively in 1900 and 1921 already declared that the Xisha (Paracel) Islands were part of the Administrative Prefecture of Hainan Island. Therefore, the current claims made by An’nan or France to the Xisha Islands are totally unjustifiable." Myron H. Nordquist, John Norton Moore, University of Virginia, "Security flashpoints: oil, islands, sea access and military confrontation", p181〕 During the Second World War, the Japanese defeated the occupying French troops and took control of the islands. At the war's end, the government of the Republic of China gained the Paracels, Spratlys and other islands in the South China Sea in October and November 1946. In the Geneva accords of 1954, Japan formally renounced all claims ''inter alia'' to the South China Sea islands it had occupied during the war. At the San Francisco Conference of 1951, in response to the Soviet Union delegation's request to revise the text of the Treaty to recognise the islands group of Paracels and Spratlys as the People's Republic of China's territories, 48 out of 51 delegations voted against. The People's Republic of China (PRC) gained control of the Amphitrite Group of the Paracels in 1950, while South Vietnam controlled the Crescent Group from 1954 in the aftermath of the First Indochina War.〔 In 1957, the People's Republic of China transferred control of White Dragon Tail Island, then part of Guangdong province, to North Vietnam, to aid its ally in the Vietnam War. One year later, North Vietnam recognized China's claim to the Spratlys and Paracels, renouncing its own to them.〔〔“We have the honour to bring to your knowledge that the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam recognizes and supports the declaration dated September 4, 1958 of the Government of China fixing the width of the Chinese territorial waters. The Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam respects this decision.” (1958 diplomatic note from Pham Van Dong )〕〔King C. Chen, "China's war with Vietnam, 1979: issues, decisions, and implications", p45〕 though South Vietnam did not accept this renunciation.〔King C. Chen, "China's war with Vietnam, 1979: issues, decisions, and implications", p43, 44〕 During the 1960s, however, the Republic of Vietnam Navy (ROVN) drove Chinese fishermen from the Paracel Island. The PRC could not effectively respond because the ROVN had significant air and naval support from the United States. To focus on its war with the North, South Vietnam by 1966 had reduced its presence on the Spratlys to only a single weather observation garrison on Pattle Island. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) made no attempt to remove this presence.〔 In 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords, the United States significantly reduced and eventually cut off military supplies to its ally, South Vietnam. The ARVN military presence on Pattle Island was reduced further to a single platoon of soldiers. Despite the lack of effective control, South Vietnam signed offshore oil exploration contracts with Western companies in the Gulf of Tonkin, northwest of the Paracels.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of the Paracel Islands」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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