Editing Spratly Islands (section)

==== Conflicts in the 20th century until 1945 ====
China sent naval forces on inspection tours in 1902 and 1907 and placed flags and markers on the islands. The Qing dynasty's successor state, the Republic of China, claimed the Spratly and Paracel islands under the jurisdiction of Hainan.<ref name="Severino2011" />

In 1933, France asserted its claims to the Spratly and Paracel Islands{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}} on behalf of its then-colony [[French Indochina]].<ref name="encarta">[http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761582978/Spratly_Islands.html Spratly Islands] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091029063837/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761582978/Spratly_Islands.html |date=29 October 2009}}{{full citation needed|date=January 2011}}, [http://encarta.msn.com/ Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2008] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091031074236/http://encarta.msn.com/ |date=31 October 2009}}. All Rights Reserved.</ref> It occupied a number of the Spratly Islands, including [[Taiping Island]], built weather stations on two of the islands, and administered them as part of French Indochina.{{Failed verification|date=September 2024}} This occupation was protested by the [[Republic of China (1912–49)|Republic of China]] (ROC) government because France admitted finding Chinese fishermen there when French warships visited nine of the islands.<ref>Todd C. Kelly, [http://www.hawaii.edu/cseas/pubs/explore/todd.html Vietnamese Claims to the Truong Sa Archipelago], Explorations in Southeast Asian Studies, Vol.3, Fall 1999. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130402164512/http://www.hawaii.edu/cseas/pubs/explore/todd.html |date=2 April 2013}}</ref> In 1935, the ROC government also announced a sovereignty claim on the Spratly Islands. [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] occupied some of the islands in 1939 during World War II, and it used the islands as a [[submarine]] base for the occupation of Southeast Asia. During the Japanese occupation, these islands were called ''Shinnan Shoto'' ({{lang|ja|新南諸島}}), literally the New Southern Islands, and together with the Paracel Islands ({{lang|zh-hans|西沙群岛}})<!--do not change! only Simplified Chinese uses this form of 岛/島-->, they were put under the governance of the Japanese authority in [[Taiwan under Japanese rule|Taiwan]] on 30 March 1939.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.combinedfleet.com/SouthChinaSea_t.htm|title=Japanese Occupation South China Sea Islands - 1937-1941|year=2012|website=combinedfleet.com}}</ref>

Japan occupied the Paracels and the Spratly Islands from February 1939 to August 1945.<ref name="king1979p43">{{harvnb|King|1979|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vY4tBfqGvZ4C&pg=PA43 43]}}</ref> Japan annexed the Spratly Islands via Taiwan's jurisdiction and the Paracels via Hainan's jurisdiction.<ref name="Kivimaki2002" /> Parts of the Paracels and Spratly Islands were again controlled by Republic of China after the 1945 surrender of Japan,<ref name="ed. Morley, Nishihara 1997">{{cite book|last1=Morley|first1=James W.|last2=Nishihara|first2=Masashi|title=Vietnam Joins the World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=taOrjN83rLEC&pg=PA124|date=1997|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-3306-4|page=124|access-date=16 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101132938/https://books.google.com/books?id=taOrjN83rLEC&pg=PA124|archive-date=1 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> since the Allied powers assigned the Republic of China to receive Japanese surrenders in that area,<ref name="Severino2011" /> however no successor was named to the islands.<ref name="ed. Morley, Nishihara 1997" />