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This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 2013585226; Digital ID g8060 ct003137)
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"Maps merely constitute information which varies in accuracy from case to case; of themselves, and by virtue solely of their existence, they cannot constitute a territorial title, that is, a document endowed by international law with intrinsic legal force for the purpose of establishing territorial rights." Burkina Faso/Republic of Mali (1986 I.C.J. 554)
Thus, a state cannot enlarge its rights under international law by its own unilateral acts or domestic legislation. Yet, this is exactly what China did in 1947 when China drew its nine- dashed line map in the South China Sea, claiming as basis historical facts.
Despite the irrelevance of historical facts to present-day
maritime claims under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, ancient maps of China made by Chinese authorities, Chinese individuals or foreigners,
and ancient maps of the Philippines made by Westerners, Philippine authorities or individuals, vividly present the actual historical facts in the South China Sea.
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
The annotations on the sides of this map are not part of the stone engraving.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalogue No.2002626771; Digital ID g7820 ct000284).
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The map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
The original of the map is with the First Historical Archive of China in Beijing. This digital reproduction is from Wikimedia Commons, which sourced its copy from the library of the Hong Kong Baptist University. (http://geog.hkbu.edu.hk/ geog1150/chinese/catalog/am31_map1.htm).
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The map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 2002626776; Digital ID g7820m gct00125).
Since the start of the Song Dynasty in 960 AD until the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, or for almost a millennium, the southernmost territory of China has always been Hainan Island based on all official and unofficial maps of China.
And as late as 1932, the Chinese Government in a Note Verbale to France reiterated to the world that the southernmost territory of China is Hainan Island.
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 200262625; Digital ID g7820m gct00225
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 2010585650; Digital ID g3200 ex000006Za,b and g3200m gex00001).
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
This digital reproduction is from the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford (http://seldenmap.bodleian. ox.ac.uk/map).
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
Revised edition based on the original map drawn by Huang Qianren in 1767. This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. gm71005060; Digital ID g7820 ct002256).
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost part of Guangdong province.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. gm71002467; Digital ID g7823g ct003406).
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost part of Guangdong province.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalogue No. gm71005120; Digital ID g7823g ct003391).
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. gm71005068; Digital ID g7820 ct003427).
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. gm71005083; Digital ID g7820 ct003428).
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 2007628129; Digital ID g7821f ct002301).
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 2006629696; Digital ID g7821f ct002303).
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 87691057; Digital ID g7810 ct002857).
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 2333624, Map Section at RM 3521).
Scarborough Shoal is more than 500 NM from Hainan Island, at the other end of the South China Sea.
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This map shows 'Scarboro' shoal.
This digital reproduction is from the private collection of Atty. Anne Marie Corominas of Manila and Cebu.
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This map shows Hainan Island as the southernmost territory of China.
This digital reproduction is from Wikimedia Commons (http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:L%27Empire_Chinois_et_ du_Japon_%281833%29.jpg).
All the maps of the Philippines, from 1636 to 1940, a period of 304 years, consistently show Scarborough Shoal, whether named or unnamed, as part of the Philippines.
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On the western side off the coast of Central Luzon, there is an unnamed shoal below the words "P. de Mandato." The Spanish phrase "P. de Mandato" means the point of command - which implies there was a Spanish military garrison in that coastal place. The unnamed shoal off this coastal place would later be called "Panacot" by the Jesuit Pedro Murillo.
This digital reproduction is from Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, Inc. (http://www. raremaps.com/gallery/detail/36716).
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On the western side off the coast of Central Luzon, there is an unnamed shoal below the words "P. de Mandato." This unnamed shoal would later be called Panacot.
This digital reproduction is from Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, Inc. (http://www. raremaps.com/gallery/detail/30701/Carte_ Generale_Des_Indes_Orientales_et_des_ Isles_Adi acentes/Mariette.html).
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This digital reproduction is from Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, Inc. (http://www. raremaps.com/gallery/archivedetail/0555/Tabula_Indiae_ Orientalis/De%20Wit.html).
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On the western side off the coast of Central Luzon, there are two unnamed shoals below the words "P. de Mandato." One of these two shoals would later be called Panacot.
This digital reproduction is from Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, Inc. (https://www.raremaps.com/ gallery/detail/35549/ Indiae_Orientalis_nec_ non_Insularum_Adiacentium_Nova_
Descript io/Visscher.html).
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This digital reproduction is from Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, Inc. (https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/32192/A_ New_Map_of_East_India/ Speed.html).
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On the western side off the coast of Central Luzon, there is an unnamed shoal below the words "P. de Mandato." This unnamed shoal would later be called Panacot.
This digital reproduction is from Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, Inc. (http:// www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/36938/ Indiae_Orientalis_et_Insularum
_Adiacentum_ Antiqua_et_Nova_Descriptio/
Cluverius.html).
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This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 2013585226; Digital ID g8060 ct003137)
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The map shows "Scarboro" shoal.
This is a digital reproduction from the private collection of Atty. Anne Marie Corominas of Manila and Cebu.
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The map shows "Panacot" shoal.
This digital reproduction is from Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, Inc. (http://www.raremaps.com/ gallery/detail/35555/Carte_Hydrographique_ and_Chorographique_des_Isles_Philippines _Dediee_a_Sa/LowitzHomann%20Heirs.html).
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The map shows "Panacot" shoal.
This digital reproduction is from Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, Inc. (http://www.raremaps. com/gallery/detail/0176gh/A_General_Map_of_the_ East_Indies_and_that_Part_of_China_
where_the_ Europeans/Kitchin.html).
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The map shows "Panacot" shoal.
This digital reproduction is from the private collection of Atty. Anne Marie Corominas of Manila and Cebu.
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The map shows "Panacot" shoal.
This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 3620673, map-rm1424).
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The map shows "Scarboro" shoal.
The British tea clipper Scarborough struck the rocks of the shoal on 12 September 1748, and so European cartographers named the shoal Scarborough. This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 3770071, map- ra49-s32).
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This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 3667413, map-ra52-s70).
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This map shows a shoal named "B. Mansiloc."
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 91680984, Digital ID g9230 Ih000015).
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"Panacot" shoal appears on this map as in the Murillo map.
This digital reproduction is from Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, Inc. (http:// www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/33827).
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In the later reprinted maps of Sayer, and Laurie and Whittle, Panacot is called Scarborough shoal.
This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 3664337,Bib ID 1372672, map-ra 39).
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This map shows "Scarboro" shoal.
This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 3507852, map-rm-451).
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The map shows "Bco de Masingolo o' Panacot".
This is a digital reproduction from the private collection of Atty. Anne Marie Corominas of Manila and Cebu.
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This digital reproduction is from the archives of the Museo Naval de Madrid, copied by the Philippine Embassy in Madrid.
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The map shows "Scarborough" shoal.
This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 2133866, map-rm 1865).
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This map shows "Scarborough" shoal, with the words "Scarborough Sept. 12th, 1748 and "the Negroes Head."
This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 3620691, map-rm 1425).
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The shoal is called "Bajo de Masingloc" but the map also adds "o Scarborough."
This digital reproduction is from the archives of the Museo Naval de Madrid, copied by the Philippine Embassy in Madrid.
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The map shows "Scarboro" shoal.
This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 1493073, map-rm 2639).
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The map shows "Scarborough" shoal.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 2006636622, Digital ID g7400 ct1990).
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This map shows "Bajo Masinloc."
This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 3639193, map-rm 1608).
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This map shows "Bajo Masingloc o Scarborough." There is an inset of Scarborough shoal (1866 map of Commander Wilds) on the lower left side of the map.
This digital reproduction is from the archives of the Museo Naval de Madrid, copied by the Philippine Embassy in Madrid.
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The map shows "B. Masingloc."
This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 122670, map-rm 2237).
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This digital reproduction is from the archives of the Museo Naval de Madrid, copied by the Philippine Embassy in Madrid.
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The map shows "B. Masingloc."
This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 2823213, map-rm 2235).
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This map shows "B. Masingloc o Scarborough."
This digital reproduction is from the archives of the Museo Naval de Madrid, copied by the Philippine Embassy in Madrid.
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This map shows "B. Masingloc o Scarborough."
This digital reproduction is from the National Library of Australia (Bib ID 1449962, map-rm3380).
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The map shows "B. Masinloc."
This digital reproduction is from the Atlas de Filipinas, Internet Archive, Ohio State University Library, (https://archive.org/stream/ AtlasDeFilipinasColleccionDe30
MapasTrabajadosPorDelineantes/ AtlasDeFilipinas#page/n27/mode/1up).
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The map shows "Scarborough" shoal.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 2013590196, Digital ID g8060 ct003965).
From the 1960s to the 1980s, U.S. military warplanes, together with Philippine Air Force warplanes, used Scarborough Shoal as an impact range when they practiced bombing runs. Neither China nor any other country protested these bombing practices by American and Philippine warplanes, despite worldwide prior Notices to Mariners, through the International Maritime Organization of the United Nations, to keep away from Scarborough Shoal during the bombing practices.
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The map shows "Scarborough" shoal with depth soundings.
This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 2011592026; Digital ID g8061p ct003542).
If the Philippines can bomb a shoal repeatedly over decades without any protest from neighboring states, it certainly must have sovereignty over such shoal.
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This digital reproduction is from the U.S. Library of Congress (Catalog No. 2013585226; Digital ID g8060 ct003137)