​ ĐÀ NẴNG — A collection of 40 ancient maps, indicating the Hoàng Sa (Paracel) Islands belong to Việt Nam, and two atlases were displayed for the first time at a conference: Conflict in the South China Sea (called East Sea by Việt Nam) at Yale university in Connecticut, the US, last week.

The maps are part of a collection of 150 maps belonging to the president of the Institute for Vietnamese Culture and Education, Trần Thắng, an American of Vietnamese origin. The institute is a non-profit organisation founded in New York in 2000.

Thắng said by email yesterday that it’s the first time that the ancient maps, which were published by Việt Nam (1618-1859); England, America, France, Germany and Scotland (1826 and 1980), and China, were exhibited in the US.

He donated a 150-map collection to Đà Nẵng City’s Institute for Socio-Economic Development in 2012, 40 of which are now being displayed in the US

Thắng said 20 maps published by Việt Nam and western countries (1618-1859) showed that the Hoàng Sa (Paracel) Islands belongs to Việt Nam.

Twenty maps published by western countries (1826 and 1980) indicated that the frontier of southern China is Hainan island.

The Vietnamese-American also said he found two Chinese atlases which were published by the Directorate General of Posts, Ministry of Transportation of the Republic of China in 1933 (29 maps) and one atlas of the Chinese Empire, published by the China Inland Mission in 1909 (23 maps). All of them also indicated that the frontier of southern China is Hainan Island.

According to the Institute for Socio-Economic Development of Đà Nẵng, the collection of maps donated by Thắng comprise 68 old maps of China showing that China did not have the Paracel and Spratly islands; six maps that indicate those islands belonged to Việt Nam; five maps of the Southeast Asian region that show the Paracel and Spratly archipelagoes are under Viet Nam’s sovereignty. — VNS