Bạch Long Vĩ Island
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Bạch Long Vĩ island is located in the Gulf of Tonkin, about halfway between
Haiphong Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta. Haiphong wa ...
(
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
) and
Hainan Island Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly ...
( China). The island is an offshore district of
Haiphong Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta. Haiphong wa ...
city. Fishing comprises the majority of economic activity in the Gulf of Tonkin, and Bạch Long Vĩ is a major nursery and harvesting area for fish eggs. More than 50 species of commercial fish are abundant in the area (ADB 1999).


Name

In Vietnamese, "Bạch Long Vĩ" ( chữ Hán: 白龍尾) means "The Tail of the White Dragon" - the former name of a peninsula ((mũi Bạch Long Vĩ / Cape Pak-lung) now known as the Bailong Peninsula (白龙半島) in Fangchenggang, Guangxi, China) before the French-Qing convention (1887). Before the 20th century, the island used to be called "Vô Thủy" which means "no water" since there was no water source on the island. According to Li Dechao, before the 1950s, Nightingale Island (Yeying Is.; Chinese: ;
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
: ''Yèyīng Dǎo'') is the former
toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
of Island. Fushui Isle (Chinese: ;
Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
: ''Fúshǔi Zhōu''; Vietnamese: "Phù Thủy Châu" meaning "pearl floating on water") is the name used among both Danzhou
Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...
Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen.


Geography

Bạch Long Vĩ sits above sea level, and is a
plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...
. There are no other significant exposed land masses within of the island. On the tectonic-structure framework, Bạch Long Vĩ island is located on a local uplifted block in a northeast–southwest direction belonging to the northwest flank of the Song Hong Cenozoic sedimentary basin, closed by the east with the basin of the Northern Gulf of Tonkin. Previously, Bach Long Vi Island was thought to have only Neogene sedimentary rocks, now it is known to have Paleogene sedimentary rocks. The island is composed of sedimentary rocks of sandstone, siltstone and claystone from the Phù Thủy Châu formation of Oligocene age with a thickness of about , and the Hoa Mi formation from the middle Miocene–Pliocene with a thickness about .


History

Historically, before the 20th century, Bạch Long Vĩ island was not inhabited due to the lack of water resources.
( Annam Protectorate). According to Article 3 of this convention, Bạch Long Vĩ Island is located to the west of meridian 105° 43'East Paris (meridian 108° 03'13 "East Greenwich), and so belongs to sovereignty of Vietnam. However, this was not an acceptable result for China. In the contemporary published map of the People's Republic of China and other nations, this island still remained a part of China (Goode's World Atlas, Rand McNally, 1933). Also, some foreign scholars regarded that this island had been China's territory at least up to 1950. Due to the lack of fresh water, until the end of the 19th century, Bạch Long Vĩ Island was uninhabited and the island was just a place to avoid the strong wind of fishermen at sea. Around 1920, a freshwater well was discovered in the south of the island. In August 1921, a resident of Giap Nam village, Co To county, Quang Yen province made an application to be allowed to cultivate in the lowland area of Bạch Long Vĩ Island. Since then, the French protectorate had increased surveillance over the Bạch Long Vĩ and requested that the Department of Taxation's patrol boats departing from Co To Island must visit Bạch Long Vĩ at least once a year. In 1937, the Government of Emperor Bao Dai of Vietnam sent a squad of 12 men to form a garrison, established a village - commune (làng - xã) regime, appointed a village chief (Lý trưởng) on the island, and officially renamed the island is Bach Long Vi. Administratively, the island was under the management of the head of Co To county, Quang Yen province. After that, the island village consisted of three residential clusters gathered in the southern part of the island, with about 75-80 houses, a population of about 200 people. The inhabitants of the island made their living by breeding, farming on the island and fishing around the island. There were about 25-50 fishing boats in Cat Ba Island, registered in September each year to go fishing in the southern waters of Bạch Long Vĩ, were allowed to anchor at the island to avoid monsoons. Most of the fish caught were transported to Cat Ba Island, a part was sold locally and a smaller part was sold to Hainan Island (China). Abalone was a valuable sea product that was bought by Chinese merchant boats and sold to Guangdong (China). However, later, there was an order that the exploited abalone could not be sold to China, but only sold in Vietnam. During World War II, the Japanese army forced the French out of Indochina and seized the island in 1945. When the World War II ended, the Chiang Kai-shek army, as a representative for the Allies, disarmed the Japanese army in North Vietnam and captured Bach Long Vi island from the Japanese army. In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party won the
Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
against Chiang Kai-shek's army. In 1955 the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
drove Chiang Kai-shek's army away and seized the island. On January 16, 1957, China's government transferred the island to
North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...
's government. On that day, the Prime Minister of Vietnam signed Decree Number 49/Ttg which stipulated that Bạch Long Vĩ island is a “xã” (village) and belongs to Haiphong city. That year a fish farm co-operative (Hợp tác xã Nông ngư), which had 93 workers and 22 hectares of land and 13 ships, was established on the island. On December 9, 1992, the Vietnamese government signed Decree Number 15/NĐ/CP which stipulated that Bạch Long Vĩ island is a district belonging to
Haiphong Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta. Haiphong wa ...
. In the convention on the Gulf of Tonkin signed between the Vietnamese and Chinese governments, China respects the Vietnamese sovereignty over the island and there is no dispute over the island.
The core issue to be settled in the Gulf of Tonkin is which principle should be used in order to divide the Gulf. In this context, the impact of islands is of crucial importance and, in particular, the Vietnamese controlled Bach Long Vi Island. The first question is whether or not it qualifies as an island according to the provisions of the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (1982 UNCLOS). If it does impact on the tracing of a line of equidistance if this principle is applied in the Gulf of Tonkin. Logically, Vietnam would take the position that Bach Long Vi Island should have its full impact in any agreement on how to divide the Gulf. On the other hand, China has an interest in minimising the impact that the Island would have on any agreed delimitation. This could be done by, either arguing that Bach Long Vi is not an island in accordance with the provisions of 1982 UNCLOS or, by arguing that its impact should be minimised and possibly even be disregarded. For China to argue that it is not an island would be counterproductive as China has earlier controlled the island and has claimed that the island was inhabited before it was handed-over to Vietnam in the late 1950s. (''The Management of the Border Disputes Between China and Vietnam and its Regional Implications by Assoc.Prof.Ramses Amer, Co-ordinator, South-East Asia Program (SEAP), Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, and Senior Research Adviser, Department of Research Co-operation-SAREC, Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA), October 2000'')


Wildlife and biodiversity

The island is home to several species of
migratory birds Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by ...
, including storks, turtle doves,
drongo The drongos are a family, Dicruridae, of passerine birds of the Old World tropics. The 30 species in the family are placed in a single genus, ''Dicrurus''. Drongos are mostly black or dark grey, short-legged birds, with an upright stance when ...
s and swamphens. Local Vietnamese authorities have programs in place to protect these birds during their migratory season. 1,490 species of plants and animals have been discovered on and surrounding the island. Of these, there are 367 species of terrestrial plants; 17 species of mangroves; 227 species of marine phytoplankton; 65 species of seaweed; 1 species of seagrass; 110 species of marine zooplankton; 125 benthic species; 94 coral species; 451 species of marine fish; and groups of birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles totalling 45 species. Bạch Long Vĩ Island and the waters around the island have listed 28 species of rare, threatened and endangered species, including two species of terrestrial plants in the genus Magnolia, 11 species of Coelenterata, 7 molluscan species and 8 species of vertebrat

Marine vertebrates include rorqual whales.


Conservation issues

Due to its distance from the mainland, Bạch Long Vĩ is used as a base for offshore fishing. The marine resources in the immediate vicinity of the island are subject to
over-harvesting Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term ap ...
and
destructive fishing practices Destructive fishing practices are practices that easily result in irreversible damage to aquatic habitats and ecosystems. Many fishing techniques can be destructive if used inappropriately, but some practices are particularly likely to result in irr ...
.Thiên nhiên và môi trường vùng biển đảo Bạch Long Vĩ - Nature and environment in Bach Long Vi island and sea - ResearchGate


References

*Draft coastal and marine protected area plan. Hanoi: Asian Development Bank. (1999) *Nguyen Chu Hoi, Nguyen Huy Yet and Dang Ngoc Thanh eds. Hai Phong: Hai Phong Institute of Oceanography. In Vietnamese. (1998)


External links

* [https://thediplomat.com/2019/08/the-south-china-sea-island-china-gave-away/ The South China Sea Island China Gave Away"> Tran Duc Thanh (eds). Nature and Environment in Bach Long Vi Island and Sea. Publishing House for Science and Technology. Hanoi. In Vietnamese (2013) -->


External links


The South China Sea Island China Gave Away
by Zhen Gang Ji {{DEFAULTSORT:Bach Long Vi Islands of Vietnam
Districts of Haiphong Gulf of Tonkin Landforms of Haiphong