Facts speak louder than words.
The international community has long recognized China's sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea, with plenty of support by a number of foreign publications.
The activities of Chinese fishermen on these islands in ancient times have been recorded in foreign historical documents and books.
The China Sea Directory, published by the Great Britain Hydrographic Department in 1868, records the activities of the Chinese fishermen on and around the Nansha Islands.
According to the Directory, fishermen from Hainan Island went to Zhenghe Isles and Reefs and lived on sea cucumber and shells they caught there. The footmarks of Chinese fishermen could be found in every isle of the Nansha Islands and some of the fishermen even lived there for long stretches of time.
The China Sea Pilot, published in 1912 also by the Great Britain Hydrographic Department, describes the activities of the Chinese people on the Islands.
French magazine Le Monde Colonial Illustre mentions the Nansha Islands in its September 1933 issue. According to that issue, when a French gunboat named Malicieuse surveyed Nansha's Nanwei Island in 1930, they saw three Chinese on the island. When France invaded nine of the Nansha Islands by force in April 1933, they found all the people living on the islands were Chinese.
Okura Unosuke of Japan wrote about his expedition to Beizi Island in 1918 in his book Stormy Islands, which reads he saw three people from Haikou in Wenchang County when the expedition team he organized arrived in Beizi Island. In 1933, Miyoshi and Matuo of Japan saw two Chinese people living on the Beizi Island and three Chinese people on Nanzi Island when they made an investigative trip to the Nansha Islands.
A Survey of the New South Islands published in Japan records that "fishermen planted sweet potato on Zhongye Island and those fishermen from the Republic of China resided on the islands and grew coconuts, papaya, sweet potato and vegetables there."
