Radio Free Asia: Archive Find Could Hurt China’s ‘Historic’ Claim to Paracel Islands

Radio Free Asia: Archive Find Could Hurt China’s ‘Historic’ Claim to Paracel Islands. “A rare find in the British National Archives may provide another piece of evidence discrediting China’s claim of historic rights to the disputed Paracel archipelago in the South China Sea. After months of scouring the archives, British journalist-turned-scholar Bill Hayton came across a semi-official document indicating that until the late Qing Dynasty, Chinese authorities still didn’t consider the Paracel Islands part of China’s territory.”