Border at Tonkin Bay (source: FYJS)
- Brown line: 1887 China-France treaty divided Tonkin Bay by latitude E108o03'18"
- Red line: New border (approximate) based on medium line
- Blue line: Shared economic zone, to be co-patrolled
- The disputed Bailongwei (Bechlongvi 白龙尾) Island is claimed by China and is now ceded to Vietnam. (It was reported that the 2000 residents on the islands are Chinese. But Zhou En-lai "loaned" this island to Vietnam during the Vietnam war to build it as a base to fight American bomber)
The land border does not have visible changes. A few mountain were ceded to Vietnam and perhaps some shifts of a few hundred meters here and there. The border is largely defined by natural landscape (river, watershed, etc), or has been well defined in the China-France Treaty. The disputed area is 227 sq km, China got 113 sq km and Vietnam 114 sq km, 50% to each side, fair deal.
Current claims on South China Sea by all different countries are shown in the map below (grey area = gas/oil field). 
China's claim on South China Sea is based on its claim on the coral islands Sisha (Paracel, controlled by China, disputed by Vietnam), Dongsha (Pratas, undisputed, controlled by ROC), Zhongsha (Macclesfield, claimed by China and Philippines, unoccupied but controlled by Philippines), and Nansha (Spratly).
Spratly, the most contested islands group, was inhabited by Chinese fishermen and has been controlled by ROC navy before the 1949 revolution. Current control of the Spratly is shown in the map below
- Taiwan still controls the largest islands on Spratly, Taiping (Itu Aba), there is a base there because there are Chinese fisherman and natural fresh water supply (well). The area is 0.45 sq. km, about the same size as Vatican City, aerial picture as shown above.
- China: 7 islands/reefs
- Vietnam: 29 islands/reefs
- Philippines: 8 islands/reefs
- Malaysia: 5 islands/reefs
- Brunei and Indonesia joined the claim but do not control any reef or island
Spratly Magnified
3 comments:
Did Beijing gain some territory? I am afraid China is just giving territories away like candy.
With Vietnam, I don't think Beijing gained anything substantial.
However, What I heard was that the boundary stones were moved a few meters after the war in 1979.
So China gave back some of those it occupied in order to buy peace.
I think the deal with Vietnam is probably a fair deal, for both sides.
zhj,
see this, and other threads in that forum. a great site.
China has half of the disputed 227 sq km. below is the story from Chinese netizen. i got a lot of stuff from them.
"1979年2月17日，中国军队在中越边境全线发起对越自卫还击作战。在17天作战中，突入越南军队防御纵深20-40公里，攻占了越方4个省的21个县（市）。3月，中国军队全部撤回中国境内。但中越边境冲突并没结束。1981年5月，中方开始收复法卡山、扣林山地区的作战。1984年4月，中方开始收复老山地区的作战。直到80年代末，中越双方才完全罢兵。
中越边界谈判1993年8月开始，在人类进入千禧年的倒数第二天，中越双方完成了16轮谈判，最终签订了《中越陆地边界条约》。在所有双方有争议的227平方公里土地中，113平方公里划归越南，114平方公里划归中国。"
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