Mr Brahma Chellaney, I trust you are history-blind. Firstly, China is the first country to discover and name the Huangyan Island and incorporate it into the territory of China to exercise the jurisdiction over it.



China discovered Huangyan Island in the Yuan dynasty.Secondly, China has been developing and utilizing the Huangyan Island for a long time.



The Huangyan Island is the traditional fishing place for Chinese fishermen. Chinese fishing boats had often engaged in fishery production activities since ancient times.

Thirdly, the Philippines has no rights to claim the territorial sovereignty of Huangyan Island.



First, Huangyan Island is outside the territory of Philippines.



The Philippine territory was determined by a series of international treaties and no treaty had stated that the Huangyan Island belongs to the Philippines. The "Treaty of Paris between Spain and the United States" in 1898, the "Treaty of Washington between Spain and the United States" in 1900 and the "Anglo-American Treaty" in 1930 (called the "three Treaties" for short) had clearly defined that 118 degrees East longitude is the western limit of Philippine territory. The Huangyan Island is outside it. The Philippine Constitution in 1935, the US-Philippine General Relations Treaty in 1947, the Philippine-US Military Alliance Treaty in 1952, the Act 3046 set by Philippines about its territorial sea baseline on June 17, 1961 and the amendment of the territorial sea baseline by Philippines in 1968 successively reaffirmed the legal validity of the "three Treaties" and explicitly recognized that the territory of Philippines does not include the Huangyan Island. The maps published by the Philippines in 1981 and 1984 also did not incorporate Huangyan Island. The above facts have fully proved that the Huangyan Island is outside the scope of Philippine territory and does not belong to the Philippines.