Disclose Past and Present of Nansha

Quite a few heated and continuous discussions about events of islets disputes as well maritime rights and interests emerged this year. International concerns were highly drawn from Huangyan Islands Event in April to China’s announcement on the setup of Shanghai City and Diaoyu Islands landing, and sentiments of domestic civilians inflame.

The issue of sovereignty is always a sensitive issue historically, and it is the fuse prone to arouse national sentiment and patriotic feelings. China's diplomacy has always been focusing on “Justifiable, Favorable and Cultured Sentiments”. People pay more attention to the aspect of “Cultured Sentiment”, but how to enable more people to understand China's “Justifiable Sentiment” in China’s diplomacy, particular in realizing to be more “Favorable” in diplomatic and military struggle casts considerable thirst and expectation socially .

Nansha Secrets Exploration, Sixiong’s new work which is published, as “First interviewed Record for Station Troops in Nansha”, over 60 years of historical information of Nansha from “People's Daily” gathered can meet the needs of readers in this aspect to some degree.

Sixiong ever served as a military correspondent of the “People's Daily”, and he had been to Xisha and Nansha successively, visited around all islets stationed in China, interviewed plenty of officers and garrisons, and showed the true state of the Nansha islands and the life of the garrison troops stationing at islets with his lens and writings. SixXiong in the preface of this book mentioned the true state of the Nansha, which is impressive but restless. Moreover, it is ambivalent. I believe readers will have more psychological identification after reading this book.

In face of these issues of islets, China hold sufficient historical basis and legal basis, but what are these historical basis and legal basis in the end? Sixiong developed a unique way of style, starting with reports about the issue of Nansha from “People's Daily” since its initial issue, and he found that the historical data of news from “People's Daily” news undoubtedly presented the history and origin of the Spratly Islands as well as the ins and outs of historical disputes with surrounding nations after systematical sorting, reflecting the unremitting efforts and firm struggle made by China to defend Nansha. Especially during the time prior to the 1980s, very comprehensive and detailed reports have been available in “People's Daily”.

In this book, Sixiong made a brief classification reports of “People's Daily” on Nansha Islands, and five phases were divided: Phase I (1946-1959): Statement, Phase II (1960-1979): Controversy, Phase III (1980-1989): Stationing, Phase IV (1990-1999): Shelving, Phase V (2000-2010): Development. Extensive collected diplomatic declarations, government documents, memos, white papers, etc from reports, especially article directing at demands of neighboring countries were provided with refuting arguments, very detailed and strong. For instance, during the “Statement” stage, the Chinese Government issued a diplomatic statement, elaborating the sovereignty issue over the Nansha Islands directing at claim of sovereignty over the Nansha Islands raised by South Vietnamese Authority and Philippines “Madman” in 1956; “Stationing” Stage, Chinese government refuted two white papers of Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the sovereignty of Xisha and Nansha Islands, and published lengthy and numerous articles in the form of statement, memorandum and academic argument. E.G, on January 31, 1980, “People's Daily” published “Indisputable Sovereignty of China over Paracel and Spratly” on their front page, the file of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China broadcasted by Xinhua News Agency on January 30, refuting the white paper issued by the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry one by one with full text over 9,000 words. “People's Daily” made the most comprehensive and authoritative exploration on the front page and the 3rd page continued, and most of subsequent diplomatic statements didn’t exceed this range. The author believes that these historical data are not known to many domestic civilians, let alone international folks, thus it is necessary to represent them , and it needs not only wide publicity and be deeply rooted in civilians’ inner hearts but also to be widely spread internationally to clarify the facts and correct understandings on matters .

Sixiong viewed himself to be a news reporter firstly, tour traveler secondly and history fan thirdly. He said in an interview that Nansha Secrets Exploration was exactly in line with the three positioning. As a reporter, particularly a military reporter, it was fortunate for him to have the opportunity to visit Nansha, while ordinary people didn’t and he cherished it very much; usually he liked travelling and writing travel notes on business or personal affairs at home and abroad. He was energetic and passionate with subjects like Nansha. Besides, he focused on and studied the historical content in ordinary times, which provided a better premise for him to look into the Nansha issue.

The Nansha issue involves international diplomatic and military troubles, so the topic of this book is sensitive, thus very few publications regarding the issue of Nansha are released. Sixiong can grasp the opportunity of interview, find the right entry point, and get the approval of the authority, which in fact is not easy. The manuscript is produced and sorted in 2010, but it just hit series of hotspots on the islands dispute this year by when it was officially published, which can be described as a lucky coincidence and right moment.