Mô tả
Gen. (rtd.) Daniel Schaeffer, RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA – IMPLICATIONS TO PEACE, STABILITY AND COOPERATION IN THE REGION
To fix a 1st marker, I shall depart from the Cairo declaration dated 27 November 1943. After the meeting between Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek, it had been declared that "all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and the Pescadores, shall be restored to the Republic of China". No mention was made of the Paracel and the Spratly islands for the simple reason that, at the time, these islands were still under the French colonial administration exerting sovereignty over them on behalf of the Emperor of Annam.
As a matter of fact, as far as the Spratlys are concerned, we must remember that in 1930, on the 13th of April, the French Navy, on behalf of the French government and using all the procedures internationally recognized at that time, took officially possession of the Spratlys and declared French sovereignty over them. The French Navy reiterated the gesture in 1933 with an expedition identical to the one of 1930. From that time on, which we must emphasize here, France never officially abandoned, nor renounced its sovereignty over the Spratly islands. This, in these conditions, introduces a specific legal case. As Monique Chemillé-Gendreau clearly explains it in her work, France has not lost her rights over the Spratly islands since France has not yet made act of dereliction. That means France never pronounced any abandonment of sovereignty. If actually, on the one hand, France discontinued, from 1954 on, administering the archipelago, on the other hand she has not officially renounced her animus possidendi. Thus, formally, France must be considered as not having lost its rights over the territory. This is a very important point to be stressed upon. The French unclear position over the Spratlys’ status consequently and unfortunately opened the way to the present discord about the islands. This is a second marker..."
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