Section 3: Historical Records on Viet Nam – Japan Maritime Trade and Mr. Do Ba’s Map of Quang Nam Region The original intention of director Lam Thanh Qui was that the film would primarily focus on reflecting the process of establishing and enforcing the sovereignty of Viet Nam over its islands. However, I proposed that the film should also focus on other issues such as historic conquest of the sea area, the forming of the Vietnamese sea culture, sea trade between Viet Nam and other countries. Director Qui agreed with my idea, so the film crew went to the countries that had sea trade and sea culture exchange with Viet Nam to seek documents and to interview scholars who have thorough knowledge about these issues. That is the reason why we went to Japan in July 2013.

The Vietnam Journalists Association (VJA) on June 29 issued a statement requesting China to immediately stop its provocative acts and violations of Vietnam’s sea and island sovereignty.

On the morning of 20th June 2014, the Opening Ceremony of the International Workshop “Paracels-Spratlys: Historical Truth” by the University of Da Nang in cooperation with the University of Pham Van Dong was held in Da Nang City. Attending the workshop were nearly 100 international scholars, overseas Vietnamese, leading experts of universities and research institutes from the U.S.A., Russia, France, Belgium, Canada, Australia, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and representatives from ministries, sectors and localities in the country.

Section 1: Starting from Archives of Hoang Sa Systematising materials confirming Viet Nam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa I and my colleagues at the Da Nang Institute for Socio-Economic Development (DISED) started our research on “Archives of Viet Nam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa Island District - Da Nang City” in November 2009. After one year of collecting materials in and outside of Viet Nam, our team categorised, translated, verified and digitalised the collected materials to build up an archive of evidence for Viet Nam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa Archipelago with a capacity of 1.2GB. The archive is composed of four groups: documentation, maps, images and audio-visual materials. After being approved by the Da Nang Council of Science and Technology, it was handed over to be managed by the People’s Committee of Hoang Sa District in late 2011.

Section 2: The Journey in the United States

Editor’s Note: Nguyen Thi Lan Anh is the Vice Dean at the International Faculty of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam. The views expressed in this commentary are her own and do not necessarily reflect any official position.

China’s recent unilateral acts in the East Sea, particularly its illegal placement of the Haiyang Shiyou-981 oil rig in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf, seriously violated Vietnam’s sovereignty and international law, threatening peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation in the East Sea.