The history of Scarborough Shoal and which country Scarborough Shoal belongs to

China's Scarborough Shoal (formerly known as Democracy Reef) is known internationally as Scarborough Shoal. It is the only outcropping island and reef in China's Zhongsha Islands, located at 15°07 north latitude and 117°51 east longitude, about 160 nautical miles away from Zhongsha Atoll.

The territorial sovereignty of Scarborough Shoal belongs to the People's Republic of China, and its administrative jurisdiction belongs to the Office of Zhongsha Islands in the southwest of Hainan Province, China. To the east of Scarborough Shoal is the deep Manila Trench, which is the natural geographical boundary between China's Zhongsha Islands and the Philippine Islands.

China's territorial sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal has a full historical and legal basis. China was the first to discover and name Huangyan Dao, and all generations of China have included Huangyan Dao in its territory, and have taken measures such as development, utilization and management to exercise sovereignty and exercise effective jurisdiction.

According to historical records, in 1279, Guo Shoujing, a famous astronomer of the Yuan Dynasty, was ordered to conduct the "Four Seas Test", and the measurement point in the South China Sea was on Huangyan Island. This suggests that China discovered and used Scarborough Shoal at least in the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the indigenous inhabitants of the Philippines were still in the primitive tribal period.

Scarborough Shoal and its surrounding waters are rich in fishery resources and have been a traditional fishing ground in China since ancient times, and Chinese fishermen have been engaged in fishery production activities in these waters for generations. Scarborough Shoal is also a place for Chinese people to take shelter from the wind and rest when sailing in the South China Sea. The surviving Book of Changing Routes and relevant ancient Chinese books completely record the routes of Chinese fishermen in the waters of Huangyan Island.

Since the Yuan Dynasty, the Chinese have never stopped their activities in Huangyan Dao and its surrounding waters, and have been developing and utilizing Huangyan Dao for a long time. This historical fact is corroborated by the official documents, local chronicles and official maps of the Chinese dynasties.

In the mid-30s of the 20th century, China's Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education and other official institutions sent members to form a land and water map review committee, in which Huangyan Dao was included in China's territory as a part of the Zhongsha Islands among the 132 islands and reefs and beaches in the South China Sea Zhudao approved and announced. In 1947, the Department of Fangyu of the Ministry of the Interior of China approved and published 172 geographical names of Nanhai Zhudao, and Huangyan Dao was listed within the Zhongsha Islands under the name of Minmin Jiao. In 1948, in the "Location Map of Nanhai Zhudao" published by the Chinese government, Huangyan Dao was explicitly included in the traditional maritime boundary of the South China Sea.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the People's Republic of China** pointed out that the territorial sovereignty of Huangyan Dao belonged to China. China** has long exercised and maintained its territorial sovereignty and jurisdiction over Scarborough Shoal, which has been under the jurisdiction of Guangdong Province and Hainan Province without interruption. In the early 80s of the 20th century, China's first organization conducted a census of the geographical names of Nanhai Zhudao, and in 1983, when the China Geographical Names Committee was authorized to publish "some geographical names of Nanhai Zhudao in China", Huangyan Dao was used as the standard name, and at the same time, Minmin Jiao was used as the subname.

The "territorial clause" in the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, promulgated in 1992, clearly stipulates that Huangyan Dao and other islands are Chinese territory, and reaffirms the legal nature of Huangyan Dao and other islands as Chinese territory. The above-mentioned series of facts fully show that Huangyan Dao is China's inherent territory, and China has indisputable sovereignty over Huangyan Dao. Successive generations of China** have effectively exercised and consolidated its sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal through various forms of jurisdiction, and have never encountered any challenge for centuries and have been widely recognized by the international community.

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In the Yuan Dynasty, when Guo Shoujing "measured the four seas", Huangyan Island was one of the measurement points.

In the Yuan Dynasty, when Guo Shoujing "measured the four seas", Huangyan Island was one of the measurement points. The second is that China's copyright maps of past dynasties are recognized by international law.