According to internationally accepted guidelines, there are two factors to be judged that could prove a country's sovereignty over a territory: the historical basis and the legal basis, and the two are inseparable to each other. There are many international laws and regulations concerning territorial sovereignty, whose applications were based on historical facts.

From ancient times to the present, China's absolute territorial sovereignty over Huangyan Island has been well supported by historical records and international laws, according to a report in the People's Liberation Army Daily yesterday. It should be noted that the series of schemes and contradictory statements by the Philippines in fact demonstrate its guilty conscience in making its claims.

Evidence One

China was first to discover Huangyan Island.

A number of ancient Chinese documents show that as far as 2,000 years ago, Chinese ancestors first discovered and gave names to the South China Sea islands, including Huangyan. From Song to Ming and Qing dynasties, China renamed the South China Sea islands as "Shitang" and "Changsha," which included Zhongsha Islands, to which Huangyan Island belonged.

Li Guoqiang, deputy director of Chinese Borderland History and Geography Research Center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that in the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Kubla Khan, to unify and standardize the national calendar, ordered the Chinese stargazer Guo Shoujing to conduct time measurements from various locations in the country. At that time, Huangyan Island was selected as one of the measuring locations, which was clearly documented in historical records.

Evidence Two

China has had long-term use and development of Huangyan Island.

The waters of Huangyan Island have always been fishing grounds for Chinese fishermen, who built docks and other fishery facilities there. Besides, the Chinese government has repeatedly deployed scientific expeditions on the island. Researchers from the South China Sea Institute of Oceanography landed on the island twice in October 1977 and in June 1978. In April 1985, the South China Sea Branch of the State Oceanic Administration conducted its comprehensive survey of the island and erected a one-meter-tall concrete monument.

Evidence Three

China was first to include Huangyan Island into its territory, implementing its sovereign jurisdiction.

Judged from a legal perspective, an important basis for China's sovereignty over Huangyan Island is China's long-term exercise of effective jurisdiction over the island. The time measurements conducted on Huangyan during the Yuan Dynasty, as an official act of the ruling body, was symbolic of China's sovereignty over Huangyan Island.

Li Hongyun, deputy director of the Marine Research Center, Peking University, said in an interview with the PLA Daily that first and foremost, the Chinese government formally announced the name of the Huangyan Island in 1935, 1947 and 1983. Secondly, different dynasties all included Huangyan Island as Chinese territory in their official maps. Thirdly, administratively, Huangyan Island has been continuously under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province or Hainan Province. Presently, Huangyan Island was under the administrative jurisdiction of the Office of Xisha, Nansha and Zhongsha Islands Affairs, Hainan Province. Finally, since the 1970s, the Chinese government has accepted and ratified hosts of applications for expedition on Huangyan Island made by many amateur radio enthusiasts from outside China.

"Approval of applications and the administrative jurisdiction are totally official and governmental acts, which directly prove China's exercising of jurisdiction over Huangyan Island," Li Hongyun said in a statement.