Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun told Ambassador Nguyen Van Tho that China had sole jurisdiction over the Spratly and Paracel islands and Vietnam´s inclusion of them under its maritime law was illegal and invalid, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a briefing.[break]
"China demands that Vietnam cease and correct its erroneous actions and do nothing to harm China-Vietnam relations and the peace and stability of the South China Sea," Hong quoted Zhang as saying.
China claims virtually the entire South China Sea and its island groups and its dispute with Vietnam and four other nations exercising rival claims occasionally erupts into open confrontation. The islands, many of them occupied by garrisons from the various claimants, sit amid some of the world´s busiest commercial sea lanes, along with rich fishing grounds and potential oil and gas deposits.
Vietnam has long claimed the two island groups and the reasons for its parliament´s inclusion of them within the maritime law weren´t immediately clear.
However, that follows a series of moves by officials in China´s tropical island province of Hainan to bring tourists to the Paracel islands, from which China expelled forces of the former South Vietnamese government in a short but bloody military action in 1974. Beijing last month also launched its first deep water oil drill in the South China Sea, sparking fears of new tensions over resources in the area.
In a further step to strengthen control, China is consolidating administration over the Paracels, Spratlys, and the Macclesfield Bank, a large, completely submerged atoll that boasts rich fishing grounds and which is also claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines.
The new entity, Hainan province´s Sansha City administration, replaces three separate management offices, giving a boost to development in the area and "better protecting Hainan´s marine environment," a spokesman for the Civil Affairs Ministry was quoted as saying in state media reports Thursday.
Elsewhere in the South China Sea, government ships from the Philippines and China have engaged in a standoff for more than two months at the Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground off the northwestern Philippines claimed by both countries.
Last weekend, the Philippines withdrew its remaining two ships because of bad weather, and China later said it would pull out its fishing boats for safety — sparking hopes of an end to the standoff.
However, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said Wednesday he would send ships back to the shoal after the weather cleared if the Chinese ships have not left the area by then.
Hong on Thursday said the sides were working to ease tensions and called on Aquino not to make provocative statements.
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