Decades of Sovereignty research

It was during the Lunar New Year Tet fesฌtival of 1974, after news on the radio reportฌed that the Chinese army had invaded the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, that Professor Nguyen Nha decided to dedicate himself to researching Vietnam’s soverฌeignty over islands in the contentious area.
As Vietnam welcomes Tet in 2017, the Paracels are still under China’s occupaฌtion and Nha keeps working with the hope that one day his historical evidence will be a strong basis to prove Vietnam’s sovereignty over islands in the South China Sea, which Vietnamese prefers calling the East Sea.
Nha’s academic work at first was carฌried out with the backdrop of Vietnam’s unification war ending the separation between the communist North and the USbacked South.
When Nha began his work as a young scholar 43 years ago, many people did not credit his work, arguing that the governฌment of South Vietnam already had a lot of information, documents and historiฌcal evidence to prove that the islands belonged to Vietnam.
“But I still have to do the job since I think it is my contribution to my country. Patriotism is the key to give me energy to do the research,” Nha said in an interview at his residence in Ho Chi Minh City.
After the fall of Saigon, signalling the end to the South Vietnam regime and the final departure of US forces, Vietnam was uniฌfied into one country under a socialist regime. The unified government in Hanoi has since promulgated many legal docuฌments regarding the maritime zone as well as the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos.
After the 1975 reunification, many offiฌcials, experts and scholars from the North came to talk to Nha in Ho Chi Minh City to discuss his research.
Despite the onset of the new regime, Nha said he continued his work to research and presented his findings in domestic and international conferences to argue Vietnam’s sovereignty over the islands.
There were difficulties from 1975 to 1979 for Nha’s work as South Vietnam was subฌmitted to Hanoi’s rule, but he declined to offer specifics. However, as China pushed further south into the Spratlys, he was enerฌgised to dig more deeply into Vietnam’s rights over the islands.
As China announced the establishment of its administration in the Paracels, Nha started writing more articles in newspaฌpers, taking part in international conferฌences and publishing books on the issue, including “Paracel Is a Part of Vietnam”, “Vietnam’s Sovereignty of Paracels and Spratlys” and “Evidence of Vietnam’s Sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa”, the last of which has been translated into English.
His works have mainly been used by Vietnam’s foreign ministry for diplomatic purposes, providing evidence to prove the country’s right over the islands. The docuฌments are now mostly used by the Diplomacy Academy of Vietnam, a thinktank under the foreign ministry.
During the interview, Nha showed The Nation a letter from Nguyen Manh Cam, Vietnam’s foreign minister from 1991 to 2000, thanking him for his contributions to the Vietnamese diplomacy.
The mission has not yet been comฌpleted, Nha said, adding that he wanted to see young, enthusiastic scholars conฌtinue to study the South China Sea and Vietnamese scholarship on the subject promulgated abroad.
In 2011, China could produce about 400 documents and books on the South China Sea, a number that has since risen to 1,000, while few libraries in Vietnam, much less foreign libraries, can produce a single book regarding Vietnam’s sovereignty of the Paracels and Spratlys, he said.
“Research and studies on this issue are not prevalent in Vietnam. I have a hope to see my books in foreign univerฌsities. If any universities have sections on Eastern Studies, my works could be used as material for students. This should be done by the young generation of Asean countries,” he said.
He added that he had seen positive signs of late. At the age of 78, he was happy to see 20 to 30 Vietnamese scholฌars aged about 40 attending conferences on the South China Sea. “The younger generation is doing better than my genฌeration,” he said.
Nha said he believed in scholarship as a peaceful means to restore sovereignty of the Paracels and other islands in the South China Sea, adding that historians relied on historical evidence but all counฌtries needed to respect international laws. “If any country in the world doesฌn’t respect the law, a war might happen and if a war happens, it will destroy the world since many countries have nuclear [weapons] now,” he said.
Asked when sovereignty might be restored, he replied: “Vietnam was ruled by people from the north [China] for more than 1,000 years … so we always believe that even after 1,000 years of struggle or 1,000 years of waiting for Vietnam to get indeฌpendence, we will wait for the right time to get our sovereignty back.”
However, Nha quoted the famous hisฌtorian Tran Van Giau: “In the modern time, Vietnam does not need to wait for 1,000 years.”