China Uses Monuments and Shipwrecks to Press South China Sea Claims

A 1946 monument at the center of a modern dispute

A team from the Hainan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology has reinforced a deteriorating monument erected in 1946 on Woody Island in the disputed Paracel archipelago. The work took six days, involved specialized tools to stabilize and clean the stone, and carries a political message alongside its conservation purpose: China presents the monument as a record of sovereignty restored after World War II.

Woody Island, called Yongxing in Chinese, is also the headquarters of Sansha, the city Beijing established in 2012 to administer its wide claims in the South China Sea. China has expanded civilian and military infrastructure there. Preserving historical sites now gives that administrative center a cultural role, putting archaeology and conservation alongside government decrees and maritime patrols.

Beijing is using monuments, maps, archives, shipwrecks and recovered objects to support its account of longstanding Chinese activity in these waters. Vietnam and the Philippines challenge that account through their own historical records, administration and legal arguments. The dispute concerns control of islands and access to maritime resources, as well as which version of history becomes most visible through museums, preserved sites and public education.

The legal stakes are different from the cultural ones. An arbitral tribunal convened under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea rejected expansive Chinese claims to historic rights in 2016. China rejected that award and continues to argue that historical discovery, naming, exploration and administration support its sovereignty claims. The preservation campaign brings those positions into everyday government activity on disputed territory.

What the Woody Island restoration preserves

The Kuomintang government erected the monument in 1946 after Japan surrendered. It commemorates Chinese naval expeditions that asserted claims over the Paracels and Spratlys. Woody Island was renamed Yongxing after a Chinese navy warship from that period.

Decades of humid, salty air had eroded the stone. Local authorities said conservation specialists used tools adapted to the task to stabilize the monument and clean its surface during the operation. The challenge will continue because the sea air keeps exposing the site to corrosion.

Zhao Yu, from the Hainan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said the team would return. The plan is to introduce scheduled maintenance to slow damage from the marine climate and extend the monument's life, making preservation a continuing responsibility.

The Sansha city government described the monument as a symbol of continuity in Chinese presence and authority. Its statement explicitly connected the restoration to China's account of recovering sovereignty after Japan's wartime occupation:

The Xisha Recovery Monument stands as a powerful testament to China's restoration of sovereignty over the South China Sea islands following the illegal occupation by Japan during World War II.

Other historical sites on Woody Island are to be surveyed and stabilized in the coming months. Across the Paracels, scattered markers, grave sites and relics associated with fishing and maritime trade have suffered damage from erosion, storms and unregulated visits.

The wider campaign aims to catalog those places, identify the most fragile and incorporate them into Sansha's public account of the islands through signage, exhibitions and school curricula. Conservation determines what survives physically; those public displays determine how the surviving objects are explained.

Shipwrecks extend the campaign below the waves

Chinese research vessels and remote systems have intensified surveys beneath the South China Sea. In 2022, Chinese teams reported locating three ancient merchant shipwrecks in deep water and recovering more than 60 artifacts. The objects included pottery, porcelain and copper coins, with exploration reaching depths of 3,000 meters.

Chinese institutions present the growing inventory of underwater finds as evidence of sustained Chinese navigation and trade. Objects recovered from merchant vessels also give museums tangible material around which to build accounts of maritime routes and exchanges.

A dedicated archaeology center opened in Hainan in 2023 to curate underwater discoveries from the region and train technical teams. Its responsibilities include storing fragile artifacts and supporting exhibitions, film content and academic work. Those activities connect the care of recovered objects with state messaging about history and sovereignty.

Li Qun, then director of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, linked the center's establishment to cultural transmission and national interests. He described its purpose in these terms:

The center's establishment is of special importance for passing on Chinese traditional culture and safeguarding national sovereignty, security and maritime rights, and interests.

The National Cultural Heritage Administration has also expanded research bases that use satellite remote sensing, drone patrols and customized laboratory analysis to protect cultural objects and understand their context. Remote sensing allows researchers to examine areas from a distance, while laboratory work helps them study and conserve what has been recovered.

This technological conservation program operates across China. In the South China Sea, it overlaps with a territorial dispute. Exhibitions and documentaries about shipwrecks and maritime routes promote historical continuity and scientific capability, addressing domestic audiences as well as foreign viewers whom Beijing seeks to persuade of its stewardship and presence.

What maritime law says about historical activity

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, usually called UNCLOS, provides the main legal framework for maritime rights. It allows coastal states a territorial sea extending 12 nautical miles and an exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, extending 200 nautical miles from their coasts or from qualifying islands.

A territorial sea concerns authority over waters close to land. An EEZ concerns rights to resources in a wider area, including fishing and offshore resources. These rules make the location and legal status of a coast or island central to determining what a country can claim at sea.

UNCLOS does not grant broad historic rights to resources within another state's EEZ. That principle shaped the 2016 award in the case brought by the Philippines, when an arbitral tribunal rejected expansive historic rights claims in areas within Philippine maritime zones.

The award came from an ad hoc tribunal established under Annex VII of UNCLOS specifically for that case. The Permanent Court of Arbitration acted as the registry and provided administrative support. Although the decision is often attributed to the PCA, the tribunal issued the ruling.

The tribunal did not decide sovereignty over any island or reef. It addressed maritime entitlements: the areas of sea that particular features can generate under the convention. It found that no feature in the Spratlys generates a full EEZ, limiting potential entitlements to territorial seas or smaller zones around rocks.

China rejected the award and maintains that disputes should be resolved through direct negotiations. In a formal position statement concerning disputes with the Philippines, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs set out a sovereignty argument based on centuries of discovery, naming, exploration and administration:

The South China Sea Islands, including the Dongsha, Xisha, Zhongsha, and Nansha Islands, are China's inherent territory based on historical discovery, naming, exploration, and continuous exercise of sovereignty.

Beijing's heritage campaign gives that argument a physical form through preserved monuments and curated objects. The maritime rules remain central to the competing arguments about access to resources and the extent of rights around disputed features.

Who protects underwater heritage in disputed waters?

UNCLOS and the UNESCO framework on underwater cultural heritage provide tools for protecting shipwrecks and artifacts from looting. Preserving a wreck requires decisions about documentation, recovery and custody of objects, making protection a practical concern as well as a legal one.

Ownership claims often depend on domestic law and on where a site lies in relation to recognized maritime zones. Overlapping claims create uncertainty about who can authorize work and who should hold recovered material. Without cooperation, wrecks and artifacts face risks from salvage operations and physical damage.

Legal scholars have urged claimant states to consider joint documentation and conservation while sovereignty remains disputed. Recording a site together and agreeing on how to protect it would allow governments to address the survival of the heritage even while their territorial positions remain far apart.

Vietnam and the Philippines present competing histories

Vietnam claims both the Paracels and the Spratlys and calls the South China Sea the East Sea. Its account draws on dynastic chronicles describing expeditions to measure, map and mark maritime features as far back as the 17th and 18th centuries.

Hanoi also points to maps produced in Europe that labeled the Paracels as Vietnamese and to records of taxes collected from fishermen on distant islets. Modern Vietnamese memory of the dispute includes the 1974 battle in the Paracels and the 1988 skirmish at Johnson Reef.

The Philippines places particular weight on maritime entitlements generated by its main islands and on the 2016 arbitral award. Philippine officials argue that historical sailing and fishing cannot override the EEZ rights of coastal states. The award supported that position by rejecting historic rights claims in zones assigned to the Philippines under UNCLOS.

Manila has increased patrols and publicized encounters with Chinese coast guard and maritime militia vessels near Second Thomas Shoal and elsewhere. These confrontations bring arguments about law and history into contact with immediate questions about access, supplies and safety at sea.

Each state promotes its account of the past while maintaining outposts or increasing patrols in the present. When governments project competing narratives onto the same reef or lagoon, cultural claims become part of the wider struggle over control.

Sansha connects heritage with permanent administration

China created Sansha in 2012, using Woody Island as a hub for administering an enormous expanse of claimed sea features and waters. In 2020, Beijing announced two subordinate districts, extending the city's administrative structure across disputed areas.

Xisha district covers the Paracels and Macclesfield Bank. Nansha district covers the Spratlys and has an office on Fiery Cross Reef. The reorganization concentrates civilian officials, budget allocations and police powers in the area. Vietnam denounced the changes as illegal and restated its claims.

The development of the heritage campaign sits within a longer sequence of naval claims, administration, legal proceedings and archaeological work:

• 1946: The Kuomintang government erected the monument following naval expeditions that asserted claims over the Paracels and Spratlys.
• 1974 and 1988: Fighting in the Paracels and a skirmish at Johnson Reef became part of Vietnam's modern memory of the dispute.
• 2012: China established Sansha with its headquarters on Woody Island.
• 2016: An UNCLOS tribunal issued its award in the Philippines case, which China rejected.
• 2020: China announced Xisha and Nansha districts under Sansha, drawing a Vietnamese protest.
• 2022: Chinese teams reported three ancient merchant shipwrecks and more than 60 recovered artifacts.
• 2023: A dedicated archaeology center opened in Hainan.

China's coast guard and maritime militia operate around disputed features, alongside vessels from other claimant states. Encounters have included rammings, blocked resupply missions and damaged fishing boats. Administrative expansion provides Beijing with further tools to sustain a permanent presence.

Within that structure, monument restoration and museum work can be presented as routine local governance. A restored marker, a protected wreck site or a museum exhibit creates a visible reminder of a claim even between maritime incidents and legal proceedings.

Coral conservation joins cultural preservation

Chinese agencies are also using environmental stewardship as part of their activity in the South China Sea. Announcements of nature reserves, patrols against illegal fishing and coral restoration projects pursue scientific goals while carrying political messages about responsibility for disputed waters.

Huangyan Island, known internationally as Scarborough Shoal, has been a focus of coral protection messaging. Surveys have documented more than 100 coral species there. Chinese statements have also highlighted claims of heat tolerance that could help reefs withstand rising ocean temperatures.

Those statements connect local conservation work with China's national ecological policy and global environmental priorities. In a disputed area, the organization of surveys, patrols and restoration work also makes government presence visible.

On Hainan's southern shore, facing the South China Sea, the planned Sanya Cultural District connects maritime identity with tourism and science. A major architecture firm designed the project to serve residents and millions of visitors.

Across China, research centers are using advanced materials science, imaging and risk management to conserve relics. Those capacities can support fragile artifacts held in coastal museums and storage facilities, including institutions responsible for discoveries from the South China Sea.

Where cooperation could protect sites and reduce risks

Conservation offers an opportunity for governments to demonstrate responsible care of historical sites and marine environments. International best practices, protection against looting and responsible collaboration would support that goal. Excluding neighboring claimants while applying maritime pressure would make preservation another source of tension.

Scientific exchanges and joint monitoring offer practical areas for limited cooperation. The idea of marine peace parks has circulated for decades. A protected area in the Spratlys managed by several parties could combine shared research with strict rules on fishing and salvage, protecting ecosystems and archaeological sites while leaving sovereignty disputes to diplomacy.

Political trust remains thin. Even so, cooperation can be organized around specific tasks rather than agreement on the entire territorial dispute. Institutions specializing in underwater heritage could establish joint documentation procedures, agreed limits on excavation and clear chains of custody, meaning a recorded account of who handles each recovered object.

Coast guard hotlines and standard rules for encounters could reduce the chance of incidents. Fisheries and environmental agencies could share information on coral health and illegal fishing. Bringing national laws and maritime claims closer to UNCLOS would address the legal disagreements that continue to shape regional tensions.

Woody Island's restored monument is therefore part of a much larger contest. China is combining historical preservation, technological research and administration to make its claims visible and lasting. Vietnam and the Philippines continue to advance competing histories and legal positions. Cooperation on heritage, fisheries and science could protect shared resources and reduce risks while the sovereignty disputes continue.

At a Glance

• Chinese specialists reinforced a 1946 monument on Woody Island during an operation lasting six days and plan scheduled maintenance.
• Sansha authorities connect the monument to China's account of restored sovereignty following Japan's World War II occupation.
• Chinese teams reported three ancient merchant shipwrecks in 2022 and recovered more than 60 artifacts at depths reaching 3,000 meters.
• A Hainan archaeology center opened in 2023, with officials linking its work to culture, sovereignty, security and maritime rights.
• The 2016 UNCLOS tribunal award rejected expansive historic rights claims but did not decide sovereignty over islands or reefs. China rejected the award.
• Vietnam and the Philippines contest China's positions through historical records, maritime law, administration and patrols.
• China's 2020 creation of Xisha and Nansha districts under Sansha drew a Vietnamese protest.
• Coral protection, cultural projects and museum displays accompany China's heritage campaign.
• Joint conservation, shared scientific data and safer maritime encounters offer practical ways to protect resources while disputes persist.