page_title: Nine-dash line
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Nine-dash line / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the South China Sea, Secretariat of Government of Guangdong Province. January, 1947. Left margin written as: Made by Territory Department of Ministry of the Interior, printed by Bereau of Surveying of Ministry of Defence. Now in Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province, China, this map describes Dongsha Islands, Xisha Islands and Zhongsha Islands in details. Every island has its name in Chinese and English, with depth of sea marks and descriptions as following: "November of 35th year of the Republic (A.D. 1946), Executive Yuan ordered the Navy Command Headquarter and Ministry of the Interior to assist Guangdong government to accept Nanhai Zhudao: ROCS Taiping, ROCS Zhongye to accept Tuansha Qundao, ROCS Yongxing, ROCS Zhongjian to accept Xisha Qundao. The mission is completed in December of the same year. In honor of the actions of Taiping Ship and Yongxing ship, Chang Island (長島) is renamed to Taiping Island (太平島), and the Lin Island (林島) is renamed to Yongxing Island (永興島) under orders. The Xiniao Island (西鳥島) is also called Spratly Island. Because it is located in the far south, so the Goverment renames it to Nanwei Island (南威島). The Ministry of the Interior adjusted the names of the islands according to their locations in the South China Sea, so changed Tuansha Islands (團沙群島) (i.e. Xinnan Islands (新南群島) by Japanese, Spratly Islands by Westerners) to Nansha Islands (南沙群島), and the former Japanese Nansha Islands (南沙群島) is renamed to Zhongsha Islands (中沙群島). The other islands and reefs are named after the historical diplomats to the Nanyang, in memory of them." 中文（中国大陆）‎: 《南中国海图》1947年正月广东省政府秘书处编制。左侧写明：内政部方域司制，国防部测量局代印。现藏于广东省立中山图书馆。 图中详绘了东沙群岛、西沙群岛、中沙群岛，各岛屿有中英对照，海标均有深度，并附有说明： “中华民国三十五年十一月，行政院令海军总司令部、内政部协助广东省政府接收南海诸岛，并派太平舰、中业舰接收团沙群岛，永兴舰、中建舰接收西沙群岛， 同年十二月任务完成，为纪念太平舰、永兴舰之行之盛举，奉命将长岛改名为太平岛，林岛改名为永兴岛。本府以西鸟岛又名斯巴特列岛，远处南疆，特改为南威岛。 内政部为调整各群岛名称，复将团沙群岛（即日人所称之“新南群岛”，西人所称之Spratly群岛）改为南沙群岛，原曰之南沙群岛则改为中沙群岛， 以符诸岛在南海所处之位置。其余各岛洲礁多以历朝出任南洋使节之名以名之，以志纪念焉。”
context_page_description: The nine-dash line—at various times also referred to as the ten-dash line and the eleven-dash line—refers to the undefined and vaguely located demarcation line used by China and Taiwan, for their claims of the major part of the South China Sea. The contested area in the South China Sea includes the Paracel Islands, the Spratly Islands, and various other areas including the Pratas Islands, the Macclesfield Bank and the Scarborough Shoal. The claim encompasses the area of Chinese land reclamation known as the "Great Wall of Sand".
  An early map showing a U-shaped eleven-dash line was published in the then-Republic of China on 1 December 1947. Two of the dashes in the Gulf of Tonkin were later removed at the behest of Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, reducing the total to nine. Chinese scholars asserted at the time that the version of the map with nine dashes represented the maximum extent of historical claims to the area. In 2010, the PRC published a new national map which incorporated a tenth dash. Subsequent editions added a dash to the other end of the line, extending it into the East China Sea.
context_section_description: After being defeated in the Sino-French War in 1885, China signed the Treaty of Tientsin with France, and renounced the suzerainty over Vietnam. On June 26, 1887, the Qing government signed the  Convention Relating to the Delimitation of the Frontier between China and Tonkin, which did not clarify the water border between China and French Indo-China.
  Following the defeat of Japan at the end of World War II, the Republic of China claimed the entirety of the Paracels, Pratas and Spratly Islands after accepting the Japanese surrender of the islands based on the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations. However, under the 1943 Cairo Declaration and 1945 Potsdam Proclamation, the Republic of China's sovereignty over the archipelagos and waters of South China Sea was not stated.
  In November 1946, the Republic of China sent naval ships to take control of these islands after the surrender of Japan. When the Peace Treaty with Japan was being signed at the San Francisco Conference, on 7 September 1951, both China and Vietnam asserted their rights to the islands. Later the Philippine government also laid claim to some islands of the archipelagos.
  The nine-dash line was originally an eleven-dash line first shown on a map published by the government of the then Republic of China in December 1947 to justify its claims in the South China Sea. The 1947 map, titled "Map of South China Sea Islands", originated from an earlier one titled "Map of Chinese Islands in the South China Sea" (中国南海岛屿图) published by the Republic of China's Land and Water Maps Inspection Committee in 1935. In 1949, the newly established People's Republic of China dropped claims in the Gulf of Tonkin, and the eleven dashes was revised to nine.
  After evacuating to Taiwan, the Government of Republic of China has continued its claims, and the nine-dash line remains as the rationale for Taiwan's claims to the Spratly and Paracel Islands. Under President Lee Teng-hui, Republic of China (R.O.C) stated that "legally, historically, geographically, or in reality", all of the South China Sea and Spratly islands were R.O.C's territory and under R.O.C sovereignty, and denounced actions undertaken there by Malaysia and the Philippines, in a statement on 13 July 1999 released by the foreign ministry of Taiwan. Taiwan and China's claims mirror each other. During international talks involving the Spratly islands, P.R.C and R.O.C have cooperated with each other since both have the same claims.
  The Republic of China (Taiwan) rejected all rival claims to the Paracel islands, repeating its position that all of the Paracel, Spratly, Zhongsha (Macclesfield Bank grouped with Scarborough Shoal) and Pratas Islands Islands belong to the Republic of China along with "their surrounding waters and respective seabed and subsoil", and that Taiwan views other claims as illegitimate, in a statement released by Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs which added "There is no doubt that the Republic of China has sovereignty over the archipelagos and waters."
  The nine-dash line has been used by China to show the maximum extent of its claim without indicating how the dashes would be joined if it was continuous and how that would affect the extent of the area claimed by China. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia have all officially protested over the use of such a line. Immediately after China submitted a map to the UN including the nine-dash line's territorial claim in the South China Sea on 7 May 2009, the Philippines lodged a diplomatic protest against China for claiming the whole of South China Sea illegally. Vietnam and Malaysia filed their joint protest a day after China submitted its map to the UN. Indonesia also registered its protest, even though it did not have a claim on the South China Sea.
  In 2013 the PRC extended their claims with a new ten-dash map. The "new" dash, however, is to the east of Taiwan and not in the South China Sea.
  Although China has not provided an official account, the first dashed-line map is widely reported by scholars and commentators to pre-date the existence o
caption: China's 1947 map depicting the "eleven-dash line".
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