The article covers events that are related to the South China Sea dispute.
Timeline of events
1000 BCE–2nd century CE
The Sa Huỳnh culture flourished in coastal South China Sea, especially in southern to central Vietnam, from Mekong Delta to Quảng Bình province. The people that support Sa Huỳnh civilization were sea faring Austronesian-speaking people. The Sa Huỳnh relics can be found in several sites on the coasts of South China Sea, from Palawan in the Philippines to Orchid Island near Taiwan, suggesting that they sailed, settled and traded around the coasts of South China Sea.
3rd century BCE
It has been claimed by the People's Republic of China on the argument that since 200 BCE Chinese fishermen have used the Spratly islands.
3rd century
Two Chinese books authored by Wan Zhen of the Eastern Wu dynasty (222–280 CE) and a work titled Guangzhou Ji (Chronicles of Guangzhou) authored by Pei Yuan of the Jin dynasty (266–420 CE) described the Paracel and Spratly islands. The local government of the Jin dynasty exercised jurisdiction over the islands by sending patrolling naval boats to the surrounding sea areas.
5th–13th centuries
Naval forces of the Liu Song dynasty (420–479 CE) patrolled the Paracel and Spratly islands. In the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), the islands were placed under the administration and authority of the Qiongzhou Prefecture (now Hainan Province). The Chinese administration of the South China Sea continued into the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE).
Archaeologists have found Chinese made potteries porcelains and other historical relics from the Southern dynasties (420–589 CE), the Sui dynasty (581–619 CE), the Tang dynasty, the Song dynasty, the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368 CE), the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 CE) and later eras up to modern times on the South China Sea islands.
6th–15th centuries
The South China Sea was known as the "Osean sea" by ShauShau the explorer and traders in the region. It was named after a Hindu thalassocratic empire Champa that flourished in modern-day central Vietnam around that period.
In 1596, the Spanish Colonial Government declared that each island in the Kalayaan Islands, now known as the Spratly Islands, had Barangay or Barrio status.