After declaring the Dongsha Islands (東沙群島, known as the Pratas Islands in English) and the atolls around them in the South China Sea a national park in 2007, Taiwan reaffirmed its sovereignty over the islands by inaugurating an administrative office on the main island yesterday.
“The Marine National Park is the country’s seventh national park and the first national park to cover coral reef and the ocean,” Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said during a ceremony to unveil the Marine National Park Headquarters on Dongsha Island yesterday. “This not only shows the government’s determination to protect the ocean and the ecology here, but also shows that the we have sovereignty over the Dongsha Islands.”
He said that, historically, the Dongsha Islands have always belonged to the Republic of China, adding that “some neighboring countries may have made similar claims, but we do not recognize them, and will not change our stance.”
Asked if the government would protest Google Maps’ labeling of the Dongsha Islands as being under the administration of Guangdong Province, China, Jiang said they were historically part of Guangdong Province, “but currently they’re under the administration of Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City.”
The Dongsha Islands are about 450km southwest of Kaohsiung, and fall under the administratiion of Kaohsiung City’s Cijin District (旗津). The main island, Dongsha, has an area of 1.47km².
Besides Taiwan, China also claims sovereignty over the islands.
Marine National Park Director Yang Mo-lin (楊模麟) said the Dongsha Atoll National Park was only part of the Marine National Park.
“We plan to include more islands in the South China Sea under the Marine National Park’s jurisdiction, including the Spratly Islands,” he said, without giving a concrete timetable.
Sovereignty over the Spratly Islands is also disputed, with Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam all claiming authority over part or all of the reefs, atolls and islands found there.
Currently, Taiping Island (太平島) is under Taiwanese jurisdiction.
After inaugurating the office, the national park signed a memorandum of understanding with Naitonal Sun Yat-sen University, commissioning the school’s College of Marines Sciences to launch a thorough study of the ecology and underwater geography of the areas surrounding the atoll reefs.
Although the islands are not accessible to the public at the moment, Yang said the office was planning to open them to limited public access in the future.
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