Tourism plan for disputed islands

Kristine Kwok in Beijing

China is planning to develop tourism in the disputed Paracel archipelago, in what is being seen as an attempt to solidify its sovereignty claim over the islands.

China took tourists to the South China Sea islands last year, an official said yesterday.

The State Council announced last week that China planned to turn the Paracels into a tourist destination, prompting protests from Vietnam, which also claims sovereignty.

Details of Beijing's plans to transform the islands into a "top class" tourist destination remain sketchy. But an official from the Paracels, Spratlys, and Zhongsha Islands Authority in Hainan , which oversees the three disputed archipelagos, said the plan would go ahead regardless of Vietnam's protest.

"It's our territory and we can do whatever we want to," he said.

The official said formal tourist visits to the islands could start this year following a trial run involving a group of mainland tourists late last year. That was the first time China had let tourists visit the Paracels, which have no permanent residents.

The Paracels, known for their beautiful beaches and crystal clear water, lack tourist facilities. Apart from military facilities, the only structures are some rudimentary "guesthouses" built for temporary workers.

The official refused to reveal the size of the first group of tourists or what they thought of the trip.

The development of the Paracels is part of the central government's plan to build Hainan into an international tourist destination in the next decade, a document released by the State Council on Thursday said. It made only two references to the Paracels, saying their use would be based on scientific feasibility studies and planning. The Hainan official elaborated on the document yesterday. He said the plan was to develop "high-end" tourism on the islets, which are surrounded by colourful coral reefs.

Authority director Tan Xiankun said in 2007 the government planned to develop marinas and facilities for light planes to attract upmarket tour groups.

The archipelago has been off limits to most people.

An employee from the Sanya Nanguoqing Travel Agency said it had organised a few trips, but only for friends of the company's owner. "But there is nothing to see there, only troops," she said.

Such trips had been halted after a government warning a few months ago.

Midway between China and Vietnam, the Paracels have been contested for centuries. The territorial dispute sparked a brief war in 1974, after which China seized the western Paracels from Vietnam.

A central government plan to set up a county-level city to govern China's claims in the Spratly and Paracel islands was shelved in 2007 after strong protests from Vietnam.

Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga said on Monday that the latest plan "seriously violates Vietnam's sovereignty ? causes tension and further complicates the situation".

But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said yesterday that China had "indisputable sovereignty" over the islands.

Zhang Mingliang , from Guangzhou's Jinan University, said Beijing's plan to develop the Paracels was a demonstration of sovereignty.

"Of course the government would want to improve the local economy and create more jobs by developing tourism on the islands, but at the same time it also wants to show that they are China's territory," he said.

But Zhang said developing tourism on the Paracels might be easy, with Vietnam having been forced to suspend tourism programmes on the Spratlys due to pressure from Beijing.

Malaysia, which also claims the Spratlys, has developed a resort on one of its atolls.

Additional reporting by Associated Press