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Beijing launches historic preservation campaign to cement South China Sea claims
Conservation specialists repair monument on Woody Island in the disputed Paracel Islands, with more preservation work planned
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China has launched a campaign to preserve historical sites on the disputed Woody Island, or Yongxing Island in Chinese, as Beijing looks to cement its territorial claims in the South China Sea.
A team of conservation scientists and technicians from the Hainan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology spent six days reinforcing a monument that marked China’s takeover of the Paracel Islands, known as the Xisha Islands in China, after World War II, according to the government of the city of Sansha.
The monument was erected in 1946 by the Kuomintang (KMT) government, which sent naval expeditions to Woody Island to make a claim over the Paracels and the Spratly Islands, which China calls the Nansha Islands, after Japan’s surrender at the end of the war. The island was then named after one of the navy warships, the Yongxing.
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In 2012, Beijing established Sansha on Woody Island to administer its territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea.
The Paracel Islands, to which Woody Island belongs, are known as the Hoang Sa Islands in Vietnam, which also claims the contested archipelago.
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The Spratly Islands are claimed, in whole or in part, by China and a number of Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.
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